Blood & Blooms: Updated
by Jama-Chan
Summary: Sakura Haruno is on a mission with two other friends when she's ripped from her world and thrown into the violent world of the Vampire King. What will she discover? Why was she transported there? Find out here! SakuraxAlucard! M Rated for Gore, Swearing, and Sexual topics. After 8 years of being on hiatus, it's back! The story will be better than ever here, please R&R!
1. Chapter 1: Storms & Stones

Chapter One

The Strange Stone Circle

It had been six weeks since Tsunade had sent Sakura, Ino and Choji out on a simple, or seemingly simple, reconnaissance mission to the Land of Tea. They were supposed to confirm or deny sightings of the Akatsuki –a well-known terrorist group– that had shot throughout the Sand Ninja's intelligence. It had been shortly before Naruto returned from his initial training, so he wasn't aware of this yet, which Sakura thanked god for, or he'd have insisted to go with them on this silly mission. Normally Tsunade would have sent Sakura, Ino or Choji on their own or with just two but with the sightings apparently being of the Akatsuki? All three went. Ino for her Mind Control jutsu, Choji for his Multi-Size techniques and Sakura for her immense strength and medical knowledge in case they ran into one of the infamous band of rogue ninja.

"I can't believe it was such a waste of time." Grumbled the blond-haired beauty racing beside the pink haired kunoichi only a day after they said their goodbyes from the Wasabi family. Ino had spent some time getting to know Idate a little bit and found he was an interesting fellow, while Choji had learned a bit more about the foods that were in the Tea country. Sakura had learned some interesting new techniques there from watching other ninjas in the medical centers and her crew had learned that the reports had been true. Unfortunately, they also found out that the Akatsuki member had been gone for close to a full week before they arrived and his traces had vanished in a storm that had happened two days ago, leaving everyone frustrated, and finished with this quest.

Leaping from a thick tree-branch to a slimmer one that bent a little under her weight, Sakura called a halt when Ino complained "Are we seriously having to head back home now? We've been running for four hours already just looking for tracks." Looking up at her companions who'd taken a couple of thinner tree branches higher up on adjacent trees, the pink haired young woman sighed before answering "I know Ino, but we had to follow orders. It's nearly noon, do you guys want to keep going or stop for something to eat?" Placing her hand on her hips, she walked up the side of the tree trunk, the concentration needed to do that not taking even an eighth of her attention or chakra.

It had taken her the least amount of time to learn such simple energy control when Kakashi had shown them. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke had been Genins, or apprentices to normal folks, and her control had gone nowhere but further since she'd been taken under Tsunade's wing. The memory of Tsunade's ideas of 'training' had been to...well, pretty much blow her up whenever the time came for some reason, but Sakura was glad of it now, any training that could help her help her friends when they needed it was a good thing after all, though the pain wasn't something she wished to re-visit.

Now nineteen years old, Sakura was the same height as Ino and a bit taller than Choji who was the first to respond to the option for food "I'm alright Sakura, I think I'm more interested in stopping for a bite to eat before we keep going, how're you doing?" Ino nodded as Sakura shrugged "I'm alright too, though we should probably search the ground again in a bit, just in case we missed something." Choji had gotten bulkier over the couple of years since Naruto had left with the Senin, or Sage, named Jiraiya to train further and harder than he could in his hometown of Konoha. Choji had also grown more mature and his fighting style had gotten much better as well, it was surprising to see how much faster he could move as well.

Sakura didn't like to dwell on the reasons why Sasuke had left, and certainly held no little amount of bitterness towards him, whom she had well and truly loved what seemed like ages ago. The betrayal of him leaving Konoha, especially that one night when he'd knocked her out and left her on the bench, had left a rather deep scar still. Of course, since she hated to lose, Sakura still fought with Ino over him occasionally when she had nothing better to do, but in many ways, she had grown up. She still cared greatly for his well-being of course but...she'd never love him again like she had when she was younger.

Choji nodded his agreement, though he took a moment to pull out a protein bar from his weapons pouch and began to eat, after a minute Ino did the same though Sakura held back her ration. It would take a week to return to Konoha, their home village. Unfortunately, their trip was looking like it would be waylaid by bad weather. It wasn't long, maybe closer to three in the afternoon before Ino pointed out the dark clouds coming up from the South. "Think we'll make it to the checkpoint before that hits, Choji?"

The trio stopped and scanned the clouds just on the edge of a clearing, the young man scanning the sky and checking the wind direction with a spyglass. Frowning, he shook his head "I don't think so girls, that wind is coming up faster than I like, and it looks like there's going to be some nasty crosswinds."

"Sounds like we'll need to find some shelter now before it gets worse." Lips turning down in a scowl at the bad weather approaching, Sakura gestured towards the ground. The other two nodded and the three dropped from the trees to the ground. The darkening skies overhead were beginning to sound like troops of soldiers' feet within twenty minutes of their conversation, dry dirt and sand blowing up in the predicted crosswinds making it difficult to see.

"Shit, we have to get out of this, guys!" Ino shouting from less than five feet away sounded like she was whispering from another room, and the three hurriedly tied some cording around themselves to keep form getting separated. If that wasn't bad enough, the rain that began to fall stung their eyes and face like shards of cold glass. After what felt like four years, they all stepped out of the thick brush into a clearing.

The storm raged on, but not inside of the clearing, and that alone had the group on edge. Straightening up from the half-crouched position she had had to take in order to move against the sudden cross-winds and down-drafts, Sakura shivered. The sudden silence had her senses stretching out in reaction. None of them said anything, though a few short hand signals from Sakura had them moving back-to-back, a short knife cutting the cord tying them all together, so each could move as needed.

After a few minutes, Ino spoke up quietly "Do you guys hear that?" Indeed, a faint buzzing noise from somewhere farther into the clearing had them each moving closer into a more easily defensible position. The area was almost flat, perfectly circular, with a mist that was also odd. It was as though someone has taken the smoke from a dozen smoke bombs and condensed it into a space the size of a town square, but it didn't move, just circled around itself almost like a suspended liquid in the middle of the circle. "What on earth is this place?" Keeping his voice low, Choji looked around at moss-covered stones that edged the mist formation, then jumped as lightning cracked directly overhead. This seemed to be a starting point, as the wind and rain that had been so active outside of the clearing suddenly began to pour into it, nearly bowling everyone over. All at once, the strange mist collapsed in on itself, spreading out across the ground like a normal mist did in heavy rain. Thankfully, the wind remained outside, leaving the rain alone to deluge the clearing. The collapse of the mist revealed a three enormous, moss covered stones, two of which pointed away from the central one at an angle.

As lightning cracked overhead "We have find shelter, fast!" Hollered Choji, his plump form making his way quickly towards the opposite side of the field where what looked like a dilapidated old shack stood, visible now that the mist had all but vanished. Sakura began to follow as well, then stopped as a strange noise caught her attention, a sort of deep bell tone from the central stone as the three were passing it.

"Sakura come on!" Ino shouted, passing by her friend hurriedly, not hearing the odd sound. "Hang on a second, did you hear that?" Almost screaming to be heard as the wind jacked up a notch outside the clearing in a screech of its own, the medical kunoichi frowned. Squinting into the pouring rain, her leaf green eyes widened at the sight of a violet energy ball of some kind began forming in front of the stone, then shut quickly as a blindingly bright flash of lightning shot down from the sky and struck the center stone in the middle of the standing circle.

Sakura didn't see what happened next, but the reports that Choji and Ino gave only six days after the incident occurred were nothing less than amazing. The stone in the center of the circle lit up in an array of white, violet and green that glittered throughout air like stardust for an instant after the lightning had struck. Everything had gone still and silent after that split second, and the medical ninja in Konoha determined it hadn't been due to hearing loss. Apparently, not even the rain had made any noise as it had hit the ground. Ground that had been scorched in what could only be classified as a magic circle. Sakura had been the closest to it, caught just inside of the circle, and had been held aloft for a good five seconds while those odd-looking lights glittered in the air. In the space of a heartbeat however, those strange lights had gathered onto the medical ninja, turning her form into a glowing ball for a moment before the entire thing exploded. Ino and Choji were horrified witnesses to it happening, and the two had managed to hijack a carrier passing carrier pigeon the next morning to take the news ahead of them to the village.

The other adult ninja who accompanied the duo back to the clearing found nothing when they went back to it to search for evidence or clues. Nothing remained of the three stones in the clearing aside from an enormous circle of scorched earth half the size of the clearing. The lightning had scorched symbols and strange looking marks into the ground, obliterating the stones that remained in such a way that none of the villagers could fix it if they tried. Many did attempt it. The only thing that everyone could ascertain was that Sakura hadn't been killed and left in the clearing. She wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Sakura was gone.


	2. Chapter 2: Awakening

**CHAPTER 2: Awakening**

Pain all over. Followed by the feeling of soggy ground and freezing cold earth on the bare skin of her back and arms. Leaf green eyes snapped open as the sensations registered, obscured by the pink hair that was one of her namesakes. Sakura groaned as the stars' light above her head in the clear night sky sent pricks of pain through her skull and she closed them immediately. Her chakra was in a mess from whatever the hell had attacked her, and it wasn't responding how she wanted it to. The sudden movement of her eyelids had the young woman turning over as quickly as possible, her stomach rebelling at even the slightest motion until she was forced to empty her stomach on the ground in front of her. Of course, that spiked the pain into her head further and the result was that she passed out again.

Some time later, she woke up, feeling heavier than normal, like Tsunade had tied lead weights to her arms and legs again for training. Thankfully, on opening her eyes she found that she hadn't fallen face first into her own vomit and breathed a silent sigh of relief before making an attempt at sitting up and looking around.

 _'Damn…getting almost hit by lightning hurts like a bitch.'_ Her mind and body feeling more than a little disjointed, the kunoichi took note of her condition overall, using a bit of her chakra at a time to search for damages and see how much her energy was damaged. On finding nothing but a few bruised knees and a sore stomach, and her chakra at almost full usability, she sighed and reached a hand up to touch the back of her head, coming away with a handful of mud. _'Shit…that's gonna need a bath to get rid of…'_ Turning her head gingerly, Sakura looked up to see a thick wall of stone on one side of her, almost as black as the night around her. She didn't remember seeing a wall in that weird clearing though, and it took nearly a full minute to realize that she was laying in a field, beside a stone, moss-covered fence of some kind that went on for farther than she could see in such darkness. _'Geeze…wonder what strong-man built that….'_ The amusing thought wasn't held onto for long though as a cold wind shot up her back. When her group had gone out it had been the start of summer, with cooler nights yeah but when they had been in the clearing the days were generally hotter than anything. This place was cold, damp, and looked like it was closer to the end of autumn of all things.

It took all about ten microseconds after that for her to realize that her friends and crew were gone, and she was not in a forest anymore. Well, she was in _A_ forest at least but it wasn't the heavy trees that were around her now, or the thick undergrowth that she remembered from what she felt must have been less than ten minutes but, could have been much longer. Feeling a cold wind on her back yet again she looked down and then over her shoulder and cursed.

"Shit, no wonder I'm cold!" The clothing on her back and backside were charred to a crisp, barely held together by a few strands of fiber. Oddly enough her skin was fine, besides the slight bruising along her ribs she had noticed with her chakra earlier and some pinkness where the lightning had apparently hit her. The clothing just hung off of her now and though she flushed in embarrassment, the medical professional in her knew that she'd come damn close to dying. _'What the hell was that energy...I'd be dead or brain-fried if it had actually been lightning...If that was lightning though...and had hit just a bit closer...ugh.'_ Shuddering as another cold breeze smacked her in the ass, Sakura looked around, quickly. "First things first, something to wear…" Muttering another curse or five under her breath, she shook some of the mud out of her hair, wiping it off a bit with her hands but generally just smearing it around since her belt pouch with the small change of clothing she had had was the one shed had on her back hp had been pretty much turned into charcoal in that lightning strike, or whatever the hell that had been. Spotting what looked like a copse of trees, and just the faintest lights beyond those in the distance, she let out a breath and hopped over the stone fence. Landing was a bit uncoordinated as one of her shoes flew off halfway over the fence, the heels from one and the leather backing of both having been burnt until they cracked open. Barking her knee on the stone ground upon landing, she cussed again, her inner tomboy and leaking out into her normal actions. Ripping off the burnt remains of the shoes, she looked around for a moment before finding a good spot to bury them under a chunk of loose stone at the base of the odd fence. "Good grief. Can't walk right, my ass is almost bare to the world, my clothes are pretty much gone from the back, and now my shoes? Those things were comfortable dammit." Shoving the loose rock into place, the kunoichi scowls, then looks around her for a moment. _'I should probably stop talking to myself, people here might think I'm crazy…though I have no clue where here is. Let's go find out.'_

Once that was done, she took inventory. Reaching into her weapons pouch on her right hip, she pulled out a couple rolls of bandages. _'Bandages, bruise, scrape and…yes, antidote balms and syrups are still intact…wait, I can use the bandages.'_ The idea came instantly once she noted them. This made things easier for her in general. Having been a practicing medical ninja in Konoha, Sakura knew how to wrap bandages expertly. It was simple enough to shuck her scorched clothing and then essentially mummify her chest with one roll, and then use the last two rolls of bandages to create shorts for herself, looping the remaining two pouches containing her weapons and medical ingredients around her hips. The results were skimpy, and though she wasn't large-breasted by any means she still had some nice ones that where now a bit squished. Her new 'shorts' were also skimpy, but covered her tender areas well enough, and she had just enough to give her feet some protection as well, using her chakra to meld the ends of the bandages together so she didn't risk her new 'clothing' from falling apart whenever she moved. Letting out a deep breath in thanks that no one had shown up during her change, she started moving.

It took Sakura about five minutes running to reach the small stand of trees. Swarming up a pine like a squirrel, the ninja paused around halfway up, noting that the trees here were much thinner than the ones from her home. _'So, strong winds? Is it always cold here? Might be why the plants look stunted too, though I'll know more in daylight.'_ Getting to a decent vantage point and pulling a small spyglass from one of the pouches she had on her belt, Sakura looked for the lights she'd seen before…and almost dropped it at what she saw.

"...What the hell are those things." Muttering the question under her breath, the kunoichi shuddered as she watched the shambling, staggering creatures in the small village. A small village where most of the houses were on fire. This just wasn't a good night, for her or the few folks fleeing for their lives. This whole night was beginning to make her feel more than a little cranky, and the horrendous feeling that she'd never see her friends or mom again made her want to lash out, cry and generally fall to pieces. But right now, what she was witnessing through the spyglass was enough on its own to give her nightmares.

Creatures that, in the flickering light of the fires from the houses, looked human but moved much like some kind of poorly controlled puppets, were attacking and killing the humans in the village. Not just killing though, it looked like those…things, were eating them, and though she was too far off to hear everything, Sakura could still pick up the faint sound of screaming coming from the village.

 _'Well shit.'_ It didn't take a genius to know that if the whole village died, then those things would move onto other areas, possibly more populated areas. Though the tree branches were much thinner, they held up under her weight and speed combined, barely even shaking as she passed from one to the other. Once closer she heard the screams again, much louder, but much fewer. Eyes narrowing, she frowned, one hand grabbing a kunai and the other clenching into a fist as she reached an area of cleared trees. Below her in a small hilled area was the village.

The village was very much on fire, heavy smoke pouring into the dark sky in even darker clouds. Pausing on a branch of an old willow tree near a small brook, Sakura stilled her body into a nothing presence almost instinctively, lowering her energy enough just in case other ninja or kunoichi were nearby with the ability to sense it. She still didn't have a clue where she was, and even if this wasn't her beloved homeland, she had no way of knowing what else was out there besides those freaky things. Another shrill scream had her green eyes pinpointing the source and Sakura nearly fell out of the tree at how fast she reacted.

Racing for the trees was a young child who could only have been about five or six. She was tiny, dressed in a blue fluttery nightdress that made her look just like a little doll with her long blond hair trailing behind her as she ran. The child was obviously frantic, not caring when a tree branch smacked her in the forehead. Tripping and stumbling over rocks and dirt made the little one slow however and the reason for her running was what made Sakura react.

Those hideous, man-sized, shambling things were in pursuit of the child. The sight of them reminded her of Kankuro's dolls, in a meatier and much more disgusting fashion. They were like undead humans being used as dolls to chase after the child, who was sobbing now that she was getting closer, a little to the left of where Sakura was perched. "Somebody help me! MOMMA! DADDYYYYYY!" Her scream ended suddenly as she tripped over a clump of knotweed and went sprawling. The child bawled in terror on the ground, trying desperately to catch her breath as she struggled to get up. That, plus the smell that hit Sakura's nose as the wind shifted, bringing the potent stench from the ghoulish things to her, served to jar the kunoichi out of her stillness.

Dropping to the ground with an audible thud, she let out a yell as she sent one of the kunai flying, the sharp knife slicing into the shoulder of one of the creatures with a squelching sound. That didn't even deter the thing however, it just turned and lumbered towards her! "Whoa, whoa, whoa there, buddy." Eye widening as the kunai just slipped back out of the shoulder wound with a disgusting squelch louder than the one it had made going into it, Sakura raced over to the child, dodging the reaching arm of another ghoul-thing that was slightly faster than the rest. "C'mon kid." Scooping her up under one arm, Sakura proceeded to jump for the nearest tree branch she could find, a pine tree with a branch around ten feet off the ground. Catching it in her free hand, the pink haired woman grunted a little as the kid suddenly when limp, turning into a dead weight. It took a moment before she focused enough to focus her chakra enough to boost her strength with some adrenalin. After that kicked in, it took less than a second before she was up in the branch with the kid.

Settling the girl nearest the trunk of the tree, Sakura allowed some of her chakra to hold her to it, while also gluing her own feet to the branch so she didn't fall either. A quick check, both externally an internally, showed that the girl had just passed out from shock, she would rouse in a minute or so. "Okay…okay, kids okay…things…yup, still down there." The small herd, horde? Whatever those things were, they were nor clustered under the tree, arms that looked like rotten branches reaching up towards the two girls or clawing at the tree trunk. It didn't look like they had any sense of pain, like they were literally the walking dead, and a slightly twisted part of Sakura's mind found the idea of that hideously fascinating, though ninety-nine percent of her felt that this was just disgusting in the extreme. "Shit…what now…"

It took a good twenty minutes before Sakura had figured out a plan of action. Sort of. _'God, I hope this works.'_ Taking a moment to brace herself, the last thing she wanted was to fall into that growing collective of stinking monsters, Sakura swung down and picked up the child before scrambling to a higher branch. Undoing a length of her bandages from her feet, she tied the kid to the tree in case she woke up and started to panic. "Just relax, sister's gonna take care of you, okay?" Not sure if she heard her or not, and to be honest hoping she couldn't and just stayed asleep, Sakura then took a deep breath and scowled as one of the monsters below growled loudly. "Ah, shaddup, ya walking corpse, I'm coming." Flipping over the branch to the lower one the kid had been on recently, the pink haired kunoichi stood up on it to count how many ere below her.

 _'Okay, thirty of them. Not too bad, they're fast but awkward, looks like their depth perception is skewed somehow, and from what I can see they have no real use of their noses or most of their sight. Audio-based hunting? Interesting.'_ Green eyes shifting to the shade of frozen grass, Sakura pulled a thin, delicate looking wire from her weapons pouch and wrapped her feet it to give them some more protection. There wasn't a lot of the wire in her pouch, it was mostly used for setting traps, but there was enough to protect the tenderer parts of them, and her chakra could help with the rest of it. "This...is going to be gross." Shuddering a little at what she was about to do, she tilted her head back and forth until her neck cracked, then jumped off the branch.

She had learned a lot in the years since Naruto and Sasuke had left Konoha, even picking up a few tricks from Choji's family on how to manage weight using her Chakra. It had meant nearly an entire summer of looking much like Choji did when he was a child, all round and chubby, but she'd since dominated that energy and could freely control her own weight. Dropping from around ten feet in height, she released some of that control and hit the first creature in the head with her wire-wrapped foot with the force of half a ton. The resulting sensation of her foot going through wet, squelching flesh, the mess and subsequent stench was nearly enough to make her vomit again, but the creatures surrounding her wouldn't give her enough time to deal with that. Whipping herself into a bit of a frenzy, keeping her kunai in her hands for added protection, the ninja went to work with a disgusted look on her face.

Freely controlling her weight and strength wasn't easy when one was moving fast enough to blur, but years of training were paying off as Sakura whipped out with her legs, taking off a head at the neck and sending it, and its contents, flying into the darkness. She tried to keep her unprotected arms and body out of reach by using her feet for kicking, and it seemed to be working since the beasts appeared to be ravenous, but mindless. _'So, they don't learn from each other. That's a good thing.'_. Sakura highly doubted she would forget the feeling of her legs and feet going through overripe watermelons any time soon though, and she was mildly preoccupied with the disgust about that when she noticed something odd. The first creatures she had dispatched were very much dead, she'd hit them in the head after all. The creatures nearest to the fallen bodies turned their attention away from her, a fresh source of meat, and had begun to eat their brethren.

"Oh, what the hell." The wet, sucking and crunching sounds nearly had her stomach rebelling again, but the woman didn't have time to deal with that as hands reached out and almost grabbed her shoulders from behind. Grunting quietly as she avoided the grab, her leg flashed out again in a spin-kick that sent the ghoul backwards away from her with a hole the size of her foot in it's gut. Shaking her foot vigorously to get rid of the sickening goop clinging to it "Ugh, you guys are disgusting. What the hell are you?!" The stench was so bad now that her eyes were beginning to water.

With her inner self screaming in a mixture of disgust at the mess, and glee at the prospect of pulverising creatures that could have only come from hell, Sakura let loose with a vigour that would have had Tsunade smiling in glee.

~~~~~Hellsing Organization Mansion HQ 6 Hours Ago~~~~~

"You summoned me, my master."

The familiar, cruel and all-around amused voice echoed from the wall to the left of the large desk belonging to non-other than the Leader of the Hellsing Organization. It was an organization dedicated to eradicating Freaks known as vampires and their ghoul servants, all in the name of God and the Queen of England. Silver-blond haired and sharp eyed, Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing paused from reading over a pile of report about sightings of vampires from all over England. Looking at the creature who leaned against her wall nonchalantly, a sickeningly big grin on his face showing pointed canines, the look overall of a man not only cruel, with a sick sense of humor, but also more than a little insane.

"Alucard, yes. There's a little town called Menoc that I want you to check, I have another job for Seras tonight. There's been reports of increased ghoul activities around the town, though there isn't a freak apparently, no one has stepped forwards to claim their servants according to the last reports by the police precinct there. None of my operatives have returned from it so far so I want you to take care of it. Send Seras to me before you leave, it's sunset in a minute and thirty seconds. Dismissed."

Alucard grinned toothily, showing a set of sharp canines longer than what was normal for a human. His red hat and round sunglasses worn inside and outside reflected some waning sunlight from the enormous windows in Integra's office as he responded with "As you wish." and bowing. Sinking into the wall once more back the way he's come, the vampire king grinned wider, the expression showcasing the glee he felt at the chance for slaughter. Even if the ghouls were already dead, it just meant he wasn't needing to hold back too much. Reappearing in his dungeon home to prepare for his departure, it only took moments to alert Seras Victoria, his pet and essentially his daughter-slash-apprentice, that she was needed in Integra's office before he was gone again into the shadows.

* * *

 _I'm going to post this little notification here:_

To those folks to tell me to kill myself because I made this story feature a romantic connection between Sakura and Alucard? Please grow up and stop whining. Your personal preference for romantic partners in a story truly has absolutely nothing to do with me and I would appreciate you to keep your negative opinions to yourself.

My choice for combining Sakura Haruno and Alucard in a Mature crossover story was _one of the first ones_ to actually have been posted on here 8 years ago, the fact that I am updating this now is my own choice, and if you do not like the combination, please feel free to read something else, there is PLENTY available on here after all.

 **On a side note to this topic:** I love _constructive_ reviews of my storytelling skills, if you'd like to comment that you love the story or want to see more, feel free to post that, I get a lot more encouragement from those than tips on improvement, but I still love them all nonetheless. Love you guys!


	3. Chapter 3: Discovered

**CHAPTER THREE: Discovery**

Twenty minutes. That's all it took for the creatures to be obliterated. Quite literally in fact. It turns out that one holds a certain amount of chakra in their hands and hands, spiraling it in a fairly fast stream starting in the fingertips and ending at the elbow, it was easy to deal with them. By the time Sakura had finished with the small herd, horde? Of them she was certain she was going to figure out some other way to take them out. Apparently, her chakra had an unexpected effect on the creatures; they both imploded when she hit them with the energy-laced limbs at their impact points, then the surfaces bubbled outwards until they exploded. It wasn't a fun twenty minutes to say the least _Must be something to do with the rotation of my chakra…or the force of the impact combined with the rotation? But then, they shouldn't have exploded but have been driven backwards…this place really makes no sense.'_ After the third or fourth implode/explosion, she had gone slightly berserk. The feeling of the bits and pieces raining down with each of the creatures' explosive endings had been so nasty that the pink-haired girl had pretty much flipped out and gone on a rampage that allowed her to destroy the creatures in less time than it would have taken her under normal circumstances. Well, whatever normal was in this country.

The creatures were now little more than carpets of stinking meat, bone shards and organ chunks. Yummy. Sakura also wore more than a bit of the mess herself, and a strong whiff of the stench of burst intestine brought her back after a moment. Now, she was a kunoichi, yes, and a fighter of course. She'd seen a few wars between lords and had even helped a few of the fights, but she'd never, ever been completely coated in bits of humans or other creatures before. That on top of already having a weakened stomach fbrom her strange transportation to this land and…well, she was dry heaving outside of the mess and trying to clean herself up at the same time when the child woke up.

When the muffled sound of crying reached her ears, Sakura blinked then shuddered as the last solid chunk of meat plopped from her hair onto the ground. _'At least my hands are clean…'_ Grateful for the fine control over chakra that Tsunade had beaten-uh, taught, her that enabled her to remain clean during surgeries, Sakura wiped as much of the gunk off her face as possible. It was possible to do a whole-body cleansing with her energy, but it took a lot of effort and Sakura was already close to the point of exhaustion now that she didn't need to be fighting with her energy circulating like it had been.

Walking around the muck, the kunoichi headed for the tree and the weeping child, looking around to make sure no other critters were going to unexpectedly show up as she did. It wasn't difficult to climb up the tree normally, it wasn't even close to the enormous ones that surrounded the village back home, but by the time she reached the child, Sakura could already tell this was going to be an even longer night as the kid started to bawl. Loudly.

Getting to the branch the child was tied onto, Sakura heaved herself up with a quiet grunt as something in her arm twinged. Getting as comfortable as possible on the limb, the woman looked at the child, offered a small smile and a small wave before speaking "Hey kid. Take a deep breath before you pass out, the things are gone okay? Nothing can get you up here and-eep!" Flinching as the child lunged for her, Sakura grabbed her just in time to prevent her from slipping sideways thanks to the yank of the bandage as the kid reached the end of it. "Hold on, it's okay." Speaking calmly, she undid the bandage carefully and then cringed as the little girl all but plastered herself to her. It was kind of strange that the kid didn't seem to mind the smell or the mess she was covered in, but with everything else that was bizarre that had happened this night? Sakura was too tired to pay much attention to it, though she made a note in the back of her mind nonetheless. Instead, she allowed herself to look at the child clinically.

Dressed in what had to be the flimsiest night dress that was only partially buttoned up the back with what appeared to be small white shell buttons, the little girl was tiny. Her arms where thin, her skin was paler than any that Sakura had ever seen before, and that was saying a lot considering her travel experience. Her hair was blond, and though it didn't look like it had been brushed in a few days, it wasn't matted and looked well cared for. The child was also thin. Not emaciated thin but not a super healthy weight if her slight frame was anything to judge by. In all, aside from the messy appearance and dirt smears, the girl looked almost like a doll that Sakura had seen once. Adorable, but fragile. Tugging on her arms gently as the child calmed down somewhat, she patted her head gently "It's alright, go ahead and cry. Say, I can't feel so great to hug all messy like this, yeah? Let's go find some water to wash up. You'll feel better once we're clean, what do you say?"

In a few moments, the sniffles and sobs died away to be replaced with a few quiet hiccups. At the shy nod and a wrinkling of her nose as she finally noticed the smell, Sakura grinned "Okay. I know I stink pretty badly, but do you want to know something fun? I can run super fast and run along treetops." At the disbelieving look the little girl gave her, the ninja woman stood up with her in her arms, grinning at the small gasp and the stranglehold the girl had around her neck. "Hold on to me okay? We're gonna go really fast, but if you lose you're grip, I'll have to stop, maybe too fast, and then we'll fall on our faces. I don't know about you but leaves and dirt for breakfast doesn't sound very appetizing." Her wording inspired a small giggle out of the girl, and Sakura began to feel hopeful. The kid hadn't said anything to her yet, but maybe this was a sign of her opening up a bit? She wasn't a mother, or a babysitter, so she had no idea. An adult you could slap or a drunk you could punch, and they would generally snap out of hysteria, but you couldn't hit a child, it would just make things worse and any trust you had built up would be completely lost.

Rubbing small circles into her back, Sakura allowed her chakra to 'drift' into the youngsters' body. In just a minute, she had done a full checkup of her health and…was actually puzzled. It appeared as though her body was working at half of the capacity that a normal child from someplace like, say, Konoha village did. Her heart rate was slow, her body temperature was low, her organ function wasn't working properly either, in all aspects the girl should have been in a coma. Confused, though hoping she was just a bit wrong in her thinking, Sakura started moving.

With a small finger pointing in the direction of what the child said was a 'big village', Sakura raced away from the burning village into denser, deeper forest, away from the fields and strange stone fences she'd woken up near.

As she ran, nearly bouncing from the trees to the ground, to rocks then to trees again, the ninja took in her surroundings and had to keep herself from shuddering in fear. _'Nothing looks the same, what IS this place. How did I get here? It's not some kind of mind-fuck is it? No, I didn't take any drugs, or see someone with that sort of ability nearby…gods I hope the others are okay.'_ After nearly ten minutes, she shifted the kid to her back in piggyback style, directing her to lock her arms and ankles around 'onee-san's' waist and to hang on tight to her shoulders, and they were off again. "Say, my name's Sakura, what's yours?" Offering something to talk about to get the child's mind off of what had happened, Sakura held back a smile with some effort at the response.

"That's a cute name, nice to meet you Lizzie." She didn't have the heart to tell the child that perhaps her parents had been in that horde of creatures. If you got past the look of the sagged skin, blind eyes, hair loss and grime plus the overall smell, those things had at one time or another been human. Whether it was a disease or jutsu or a science of some other type, she didn't know, and to be brutally honest, Sakura didn't want to know unless it was to find a cure for it. Though judging from just how decomposed most of the corpses had been…she didn't hold any hope towards something like that.

After running for what felt like an hour or so, with the moon high in the sky, Sakura spotted a glimmer of light and stopped in a clearing, breathing deeply and evenly. Seeing the pond filled with clean water and few insects, the kunoichi spoke up "Here's a nice place Lizzie, let's see if the water's alright. First though, I need to put you down. You okay with that?" At the small nod that came, Sakura felt her relax her grip and helped her get her balance once on the ground again. "Now look, I'm going to check the surroundings really quick to make sure there's no bears or anything else around okay? I want you to stay on that tree branch there until I get back. Don't make any noise or anything else that might draw attention to you. Sound okay?" At the child's nod and wide, frightened eyes, Sakura boosted her into the tree and added a few branches from higher up it for some cover for Elizabeth to hold onto for camouflage. Seeing her cling tight to the smaller branches, Sakura didn't correct her in that extra bit of silence. Instantly, she was off the branch ahead and completed a thorough search of the area before returning to the girl, who appeared to not even need to breathe. Her face was turning pinker by the second though, and it made the kunoichi smile "Okay, you can breathe now honey. Nothing's around unless you count the squirrels and mice." That got a dramatic gasp for air and a quiet giggle from Lizzie, which brought a quick grin to Sakura's face. "Ready for a dip?!" Scooping up the child, the ninja whooped in glee while Lizzie shrieked in a mix of laughter and fear as the woman catapulted the two of them off of the tree branch and into the deep end of the pond. It was colder than expected, and the two ended up yelping once they surfaced.

 **~~~~~~~~~~Alucard's Point of View~~~~~~~~~~**

Just six hours was all it took to reach Menoc via car. Alucard could have simply gone there using the shadows of course, but he was taking a sadistic delight in terrifying the young recruit who had been rather...listless, in his duties, so had been recruited to be the vampire king's driver.

The moon was bright and past its zenith when he had the soldier pull over to the side of the road. Melding with the shadows in the car, the dark haired vampire slipped away from the road, re-materializing on the outskirts of the still burning little town. Moonlight glinted orange off of his sunglasses as he peered at the flames and those forms that remained still and silent on the ground. The stench of ghouls in a concentrated space at the other end of the town drew his attention when the wind changed course, bringing the smell to him and it was moments later that he paused on the edge of the mess that someone had made of the creatures that had been residents at one time. Flipping open the chamber of the enormous Jackal, a large gun he wielded easily, he nodded with satisfaction at the sight of the bullets in the chamber and stalked into the shadows silently.

Frowning slightly, annoyed that his fun had been taken away from him, and intrigued at the same time as to what could have created this carpet of mess. How was he supposed to vent his nastier side if there was nothing to take it out on?! His lips curling in disgust, the vampire king carried on past the tree, even going so far as to reach the small manor where the mayor of the town had lived. The ghoul that remained there had been stuck behind a blockade of broken furniture in a room. It wasn't much to see anymore either, mangled nearly to an eternal form of death yet still struggling along the carpeted flooring using one arm stump and some helpless contractions of ripped stomach muscles. It was a waste of a good bullet.

Stalking bad temperedly out of the manor, his red coat flaring out behind him like a red wing of some kind of enormous bird, Alucard's ears caught the last sound of flesh hitting flesh that gave way and turned towards the forest. It took a few seconds before he had come across the rather strange trail of the ones who had done the damage to his fun. Squishing a shattered finger on the edge of the chaotic circle of destruction, he glanced up at the faintest sound of movement in the far distance. "Interesting..."

Moving swiftly and silently, the vampire sped towards the source of the sounds...

Coming to a stop on a tree at the edge of a clearing when he heard the sounds of splashing, the vampire sunk into the shadows to watch. It was a woman and a child in the middle of a pond. The two were shivering, and the child had a nasty scowl on its face as the looked at the woman's' back. The woman had turned away for a moment to pick up something from the pond bottom. The water wasn't very deep in that area it seemed, coming to the woman's' shoulders, though the child had to tread water to remain above the surface.

The woman had bandages wrapped around her breasts, not flattening them but simply covering them, and the bandages, white ones, were soaked through, leaving NOTHING to the imagination. Her 'shorts' -skintight to begin with as they were also bandages- under the water made it seem as though she was wearing a bathing suit bottom of some kind rather than actual clothing. Soaked pink hair the color of blood in milk gleamed under the moonlight and the filth that had washed off of her skin showed it to be pale white. Some healthy pink flushed across her cheeks since the water was cold but otherwise she was very pale, and in the dark forest with the only light being an enormous moon overhead, a faint thought flitted through Alucard's mind that she looked gorgeous in a strange, interesting way. Her teeth were beginning to chatter as she turned and reached for the child. "C'mon Lizzie-girl, let's get out of here now and dry off." Smiling as the child wrapped her arms around her neck and buried her face in the crook of her shoulder, the woman smiled and began to wade to the side of the pool. The woman didn't notice the faint gleam in the child's eyes, or the signs of insanity in her small charge yet. The two looked nothing alike, so Alucard figured there was no blood relation between the two. _'Perhaps she rescued the child...not that there was any need...nosy one. Oh well.'_ Having already checked his Jackal for bullets earlier, the vampire stepped out of the shadows silently, making no noise in the trees as the woman nearly reached the edge of the pond.

Everything in the forest went dead silent as the gun shot once.

* * *

Thank you everyone for the kind reviews!

To Guest: I know, I'm happy to be back! Thanks so much for reading! ^^

To 9tailedspartan: I'm in agreement with you on that opinion, and thanks! I'm working on re-constructing the story to make it easier to read, with less grammatical issues. I really had no idea what I was writing with half of it apparently! ^^; But! I have a better idea of where I'm going with the story, and things are going to change quite a bit in the next few chapters~~!

To LycanGod13: Thanks so much for the offer of info on the series and vampire lore in general! I believe I know quite enough about the Hellsing series and different lore in general, so I'm just going to go with that and a few small hunches I have around Alucard's and Seras Victoria's relationship. Want to compare notes? XD I hope you enjoy the next chapters! :)


	4. Chapter 4: Flight & Fight

**Chapter Four: Flight or Fight**

The sound of the bullet was a sharp, deadly crack of noise, similar to thunder in that it rumbled through the air and ground before it was literally heard. Time seemed to slow for the pink haired kunoichi, who heard the noise first and began to turn towards it. Simultaneously Lizzie, the child in her arms now, twisted sideways violently and proceeded to push both of them underwater, stunning Sakura a little at the child's strength. Alucard frowned slightly at the sudden maneuver while his bullet rammed itself harmlessly, more or less, into a tree across the pond. Not one to normally miss anything – scratch that, he NEVER missed – the vampire looked out into the water as the mud disturbed by the two bodies roiled up from the bottom of the pond. Cruel, cold red eyes watched intently as the water in the pond stilled and grew mirror like, the silt settled, and a frown tugged at his lips. Stepping out of the shadows fluidly, the vampire walked to the edge of the pond slowly, then nearly snarled as he noticed that the pond was clear of any bodies. Somehow that woman and her child had escaped him. The scent of water nearby with the aroma of warm human flesh and the tang of exhaled air caught the master vampires nose a moment after the realization had hit. Alucard's frown turned to a sly grin "How...interesting."

Once Lizzie had spun the two of them into the water and having caught a glimpse of why, Sakura had kicked up the mud and silt at the bottom of the pond to block their escape route, the kunoichi had knocked the…child, creature, unconscious as they had made their escape using a batch of thick brush to the left of the pond with just enough overhang to provide them some cover. The small creature was unconscious now under her arm as she froze just under a different thick bush as the other creature, a male this time, stepped into view. Holding herself silent, the woman scowled. Her charge wasn't human, that was obvious from the red eyes, sharp teeth too big for her tiny mouth and that absurd strength that the child had displayed when protecting them both. Of course, Sakura wasn't just going to kill her – she hadn't just tried to kill her after all – and from her strength and speed, the little one was entirely able to have attacked and even killed the kunoichi when she had rescued her, there had been countless times where she could have attacked her.

It was just a matter of time before she was spotted, even with her chakra hiding their heart beats and most of their other tells in the moment, she had no idea if their scents or chakra itself could be sensed. She didn't know so much about this strange land and internally she was wanting to lash out and pulverize everything in sheer frustration. She was beginning to think she was the only human in this land, anything could happen that could give her away and apparently this man was a hunter. Judging from the mans watchful posture, Sakura could tell that they weren't out of danger _'I'm not even sure if this little one is even a child…those teeth and eyes…her strength…I'm gonna have bruises from her pushing me, and I knew she wasn't using her full strength.'_ Thoughts whirling, Sakura froze. At least they were more or less clean now, though wet and cold. _'Okay. Get out. Find shelter. Grill the girl. First up is get away.'_ Picking up Lizzie using movements designed to not draw attention, the ninja girl shifted some of her chakra to gag the child with a bit of her dress, then shuffled the limp weight to her back, using her energy as well to toe her back to back with Sakura. The last thing she wanted was to have the girl wake up with her fangs near her jugular, even with a gag in her mouth.

From there, the woman took a chance. Standing up out of the brush, she jumped for a thick branch a meter or so away, caught it and swung up into the trees where she could run faster. Then she was off like a shot, heading west towards some higher ground.

Alucard spotted her instantly, having just pinpointed the location just before she stood up. He watched in mild surprise as her form appeared to vanish into the shadows, heading upwards using the branches of the trees in what he would have normally assumed would be a difficult and treacherous route compared to the solid dirt of the ground below. He would never admit it aloud, but the sight of a child-vampire had twinged something in him. Children were always difficult creatures as humans, when they were Turned, often in or during a nasty invasion by another vampire, they were generally twisted, evil creatures who nearly always lost their ability to contain their human-like forms for very long. That meant he needed to remove her from the pink-haired woman as soon as possible or else Integra would be very pissed off. To be brutally honest, he really didn't care about the child, it wasn't one of his own creations and though he could entirely see the uses for such a creature, Integra had violently opposed the idea in the past to use orphans for this purpose, even though many more of them were virginal, able to be turned and his control over them would be impeccable, unlike how this creature appeared to be. All that mattered now was that he was temporarily free to do nearly as he wished. So long as he returned within two days to the mansion and had dealt with the problem of the village before he returned everything would be fine. Considering the whole village was gone now, he was almost entirely free to track these two odd creatures. Alucard, in all his many, many years, had never seen all-pink hair like that of the woman he was now after. _'I wonder if she tastes as sweet as she looks...'_ Somewhere in his mind, he realized what it was he had been thinking and slowed his pursuit a bit, frowning slightly in thought. _'A full moon tonight...must be affecting my thoughts more than normal, in ways I am not fully certain of...Perhaps death is the better option for the two.'_ No longer hesitating, the vampire slid into the shadows once more in pursuit of the two.

 **Two hours later...**

It was nearly dawn, and he was having too much fun to simply end the game now. Over the last couple of hours Alucard had figured out that the woman who ran, not the child, was the one he was after most. Not out of any sort of sexual reason - he'd given inclination that up decades ago - but for curiosity. The woman had a strange scent to her, whenever he'd managed to catch it with his nose. Cinnamon and cherries, sweet but spicy at the same time, and it piqued his interest further into who she was. Most humans smelled like walking bags of perfume or cologne, deodorant or just plain unwashed bodies underneath the ever-present scent of their individual blood, which also contained its own fragrance depending on how much care the person took of themselves. An obese person with a penchant for alcohol may smell like the bourbon that they like, with undertones of spicy O negative whereas a thin person with an addiction to Heroin may smell like rancid milk and old socks under the flowery aroma of AB positive blood. Depending on the type of person, their health and habits, sometimes Alucard may at times find a rare human who had a decent body scent under their blood scent...yet he had never smelled blood and humans together as cherries and cinnamon of all things. He was very curious as to which was the body scent, and which was the blood.

At times he'd been nearly close enough to touch her, the odd cloaking ability she had seemed to have worn off slowly over the course of their chase, so at first, he was considering the idea that she was on drugs of some kind, or some sort of new technology was aiding her. A slightly closer look revealed the latter option to be impossible unless she had the tech embedded inside of her _'Those clothes certainly do not leave anything to the imagination.'_ He never got too close, enjoying his freedom more so than the chase, even more so than his interest in the two, and let them run. Her speed, obvious strength and the sheer endurance alone would have had him preparing to bring her back to headquarters, but the uncanny way she seemed to slip in and out of his perception was intriguing, and in many ways the vampire was testing her. Only one thing made him stop the chase, that was the sunlight. The blasted sun was going to be coming up in less than an hour now and he had no coffin, no basement or shelter to take cover in yet. So, reluctantly, Alucard stopped following them as they passed through a tiny glade close to the mountains in order to prepare his shelter for the daylight. Her complicated, fascinating scent, and that faintly diseased smell of the child vampire, was still with him as he began to prepare for the day.

He would end this game upon awakening.

It wasn't easy to keep up the pace, and with everything else that had happened before he had shown up Sakura was starting to tire faster than she normally did. For two hours the creature had been following them, and she'd had to use some force in order to make the child-creature-thing fall unconscious again twice over the run. _'She's not going to be happy when she wakes up I think..._ ' The only way she knew to find this man, who appeared as though he had an ability similar to Orochimaru's in that he seemed able to hide and travel in the shadows, was a certain blankness in the darkness around her. She'd catch a glimpse of him every time she went to slow down or stopped for a second just to catch her breath. The fact that he could stalk her at such heights and speed was terrifying, and it took every bit of her training to stamp that fear down. Lady Tsunade and so many of her teachers had taught her the need for moving past fear when on a mission, not so much that one became foolish like Naruto, who seemed to have no sense of fear whatsoever ninety percent of the time, but enough so that she was able to think and function to survive. As soon as she began to slow for the last time, she was a good kilometer away from where she had sensed him last, near the base of what was apparently a small mountain of steep hills and cliffs. She now had no idea where she was, and with the sky beginning to lighten slowly as the sun began to rise, the woman sought some form of defensible shelter. Her run had nearly dried her off, but the child...creature, was still soaking wet in her thicker fabric dress and long hair. Sakura had no clue if the kid was able to catch a cold or chill but didn't want to risk it. The child might have answers she could use to get an idea as to where in the world she was.

Finding a small cave just barely big enough for the two of them, made from solid stone that didn't crumble when she touched it, the pink hired kunoichi settled into it, moving fast but silent in order to find the driest twigs and sticks she could. The kid had awakened shortly after Sakura had found the cave and after a quick, quiet word the kunoichi set her down in the farther part of it away from the rising sun. Lizzie watched as Sakura got a tiny fire going, just big enough to offer some warmth without too much smoke. Once that was over, and shaking like a cut cat now that her adrenaline was fading, along with close to the last of her chakra reserves. As a medical ninja, the young woman knew she was finally dealing with the shock of everything that had been going on, and there was literally nothing she could really do about except let her body sort itself out with the shakes, possible vomiting, nausea and/or heart palpitations if her body so chose. She could control her own heart rate to a certain extent, which was fine, but was not looking forward to the other stuff. Instead of sitting down, the kunoichi sort of...collapsed in a heap on the cavern floor. Lizzie looked at the human in front of her and tried to get closer, only to squeal as a shaft of sunlight almost immediately raised red welts along the back of her hand. The pain was enough to send the little girl scrambling backwards to the back of the cavern where she looked at Sakura...then burst into tears.

She was too young to know what she had been turned into, and didn't seem to understand what was wrong with everything. The push she'd given to Sakura in the pond earlier had been purely reactionary; Lizzie hadn't known what was happening when she'd heard the gunshot, but her body had and reacted accordingly to avoid injury. Having seen the scenario play out, watching as Lizzie scrambled backwards, and having realized that the quiet sniffles and nearly-silent sobs were coming from a child who was, if not human, then certainly still just a child, Sakura sighed. Edging over carefully when her legs proved nearly useless now that she was in full-blown shock, the young woman moved closer into the dark of the cave and tugged the little one into her arms, rocking the both of them a bit awkwardly as Lizzie sobbed.

Having no idea what was going on, Sakura took many deep breaths over the course of the morning as the two settled down slowly. So many thoughts went through her mind, and as the child dropped into what could have only been described as a coma, the human was left to consider everything and make a plan of action.

 _'So. Stinking creatures that move around and look like rotting corpses. They explode if I inject chakra into them. Disgusting but good to know I guess.'_ Using her fingers to think things through, the kunoichi frowned in thought. _'A tall guy in a red outfit with a really big gun, can move through the shadows as fast as I can, or nearly, and who doesn't seem to have any kind of chakra or anything that I can sense, which leaves him as a blank space in my detection...so he's not entirely undetectable. Oh, and he looks like a psychotic killer.'_ Gritting her teeth in anger at that thought, Sakura scowled and finally got to her feet again. Hunching a bit as she shuffled closer to the back of the small cave where wind and old storms had shoved leaves and finer detritus, she carried the limp body with her, noting the near lack of heartbeat (one beat roughly every ten minutes) and the wound from the sun having healed once the child had fallen unconscious.

Her own body was aching, and she was cold and hungry. She was exhausted and had no idea where she was, or even possibly, when she was. There were too many unknowns and Sakura was on edge...but that would need to wait apparently. She was too tired, and with the adrenaline rush having faded and the shock as well, there was nothing left. The last thing she remembered before passing out beside the little one was the sight of the sunshine making a puddle of almost-warm light on the cave floor about four feet from the entrance.

A little after mid-afternoon her stomach woke her up and Sakura stretched slowly to limber her muscles up after having not moved for a good six hours. It was easy enough to put aside her hunger, it wasn't to the point where she was starving yet though her rations had also been destroyed during her sudden transfer alongside her clothing. In no time, she had the embers from the fire going again with a few twigs and sticks from the pile at the back of the cave and had checked the child over carefully. Lizzie's clothing was dry now, and with the sun slowly beginning to set over the mountain, something about the darkness seemed the best option for her to move Lizzie anyways, since she was apparently extremely light-sensitive. As a medical ninja, she hadn't ever come across a person so sensitive to the sunlight, though there had been records of ninja and regular folks that had that condition. It wasn't a disease, but just how their bodies worked against them with the UV light from the sun, so they burned ridiculously easily. It was a painful condition. She was glad that Lizzie had a fast healing rate apparently, so any injuries were quickly able to be dealt with. Hopefully.

It had been a decent day for hunting at least, two squirrels had run past the cavern, easily picked off by shuriken from her pouch that she had left. Roasting them over the hot coals of the fire once it had burned down enough, Sakura had a small meal and some for the child as well. As the sun set over the mountain, the child woke up and Sakura's suspicions were proven true. _'She can't handle the sunlight, sleeps or becomes comatose somehow, a state of suspended animation perhaps, during the daylight hours and awakens once the sun is down. This is good to know, now I can-'_ Sakura stopped all thought processes seconds before finishing them just as a flash of red caught her attention across the small open area in front of the cave. Lizzie was sitting up groggily as Sakura stood up slowly, then scrambled to the edge of the cave to hide behind the woman when she sensed the other vampire outside of the cave. Her eyes were noticeably red now, and she couldn't seem to force her fangs into her gums. The child was terrified, but overall felt...hungry.

With the brim of his hat hiding his eyes, though not the sharp nose, pale skin and calm position against the backdrop of the darkened forest, Alucard was watching the cave as the two appeared. He held the Jackal in his hand loosely, but with obvious ability and though Sakura had her kunai in hand, she knew immediately that she was cornered. Choosing the cavern had been a bad idea, and to not move on as soon as possible was proving to be what was most likely a mistake. Lips lifting in a slow and arrogant smirk the vampire spoke first, his eyes blatantly looking over the grown woman, though only with what could possibly be seen as lust. The look he gave her was creepy; a mix of intrigue, calculation, a predatory response to new prey and, perhaps a bit of lust for her figure. "Not a bad place to hide for a day, it's too bad you didn't make it farther."

Eyes narrowing slowly, Sakura watched the vampire with a deadpan expression, not answering him at first. Her ready stance put her in front of him, between him and Lizzie, who had wrapped both arms around her belly instead of Sakura's legs. A faint glow spread slowly, unnoticed, from Sakura's fingertips and up to near her elbow.

Narrowing her eyes, Sakura watched the vampire with a deadpan expression, her ready stance never shifting though a faint glow began to form around her free hand, the light sharpening and lengthening to form a blade of light that enclosed her flesh. It wouldn't cut flesh on its own yet, but it would act much as Kabuto Yakushi's Chakra Scalpel did in slicing the body up internally. She liked to think that her abilities were possibly better than that traitors' ability, though Sakura knew in a fight her better choice of weapon would be to use her strength and kunai, and probably to aim for the more sensitive parts of this man. Alucard on the other hand...had absolutely every intention of bringing the pink haired woman to Integra and killing the child. After all, he couldn't die.

The two adults stared at each other before the vampire spoke again "Move aside girl, the creature is to be disposed of." For him, he spoke pleasantly, even coaxingly. To Sakura, his wording and tone grated on every. Damned. Nerve. Her eyes narrowing further for a moment before she responded with a minute head shake. "No." One word only, but it was enough. Not glancing back when she felt the faint presence of the child behind her, somehow less obvious than she had been yesterday, Sakura muttered quietly "Get on my back Lizzie, and hang on." Her inner fashionista was hollering that the guy was ridiculous for wandering around at night, in the pitch-dark forest wearing sunglasses, but considering his obvious skill in using the giant gun in his hand there wasn't any need to point that out. She barely got the last syllable out before the man was nearly on top of her. Considering how fast she had been moving last night to run, she should have remembered that he appeared to keep up easily with her, she cursed as the gun came up and tapped her lightly on the forehead. "Don't be a fool. The monster will soon become too starved to remain even remotely human, it will tear out your throat without a second thought." Alucard didn't say the words so much as hiss them, amusement gone from his expression at her defiance. He was close enough now that she caught a whiff of his breath that was...unsettling actually. His breath smelled like lavender and rose oil, really weird considering his fangs were very obviously not meant to chow down on fruit and vegetables.

Resisting the urge to back up in case his trigger finger was itchy Sakura growled in frustration. She scowled as her hand came up. The energy-coated hand was razor sharp, truly nasty and when wielded by a medical ninja such as Sakura, the chakra sliced cleaning into the vampire's tissues. The result was that though she appeared to just tap his arm at the elbow and wrist, not so much as bruising his flesh where she touched it...but internally every bit of muscle, sinew, vein and bone, was sliced clean through. As his arm went limp from the elbow down Alucard blinked. He was impressed that she seemed to feel no fear even though he had gotten so close. He was impressed that she seemed to feel no fear even with a gun to her head. He was shocked at what such a... gentle attack, had done to him though. Even a strongman wasn't able to bend his pinky normally (he had tried that back in 1604 or so) and this was...a very odd sensation to have one's own arm be sliced clean in half...with the skin completely intact. As his arm flopped over, taking the gun away from her and the surprise distracted the vampire for a moment, the kunoichi performed a Substitution Jutsu, replacing herself and Lizzie with a bundle of sticks she'd prepared a way off, and the began to run again.

"...Fascinating." Murmuring quietly as he watched her go for a moment, Alucard narrowed his eyes as his flesh began to knit back together. He hadn't been damaged enough to need to 'liquefy' as he'd done before using the shadows when badly damaged. One thing he noticed about this injury was that the pain was nearly nonexistent. As though she had applied anesthetic to it before cutting him internally, he felt nothing from the wound even as it knit back...together...backwards. _'...What.'_

He had no control over how he healed it apparently. _'Intriguing...so this is a special human indeed...'_ "Well that was stupid." Grinning cheerily now as the fun escalated; he turned around to catch at her scent, smoky from the now-dead fire in the cave entrance, but with that added lushness that was all hers. Alucards eyes narrowed in anticipation of another good run, another good fight...though this time, the ending would make him the winner. Well, the fight would be fun, but he'd received a call from Integra earlier on in the daylight hours while he was underground, and he'd been instructed to herd the pink haired enigma towards the town of Morganssen. Chuckling as he began to follow the two, his laughter echoing in the still forest,

 **Six Hours 2 More Bullets Later...**

The first bullet after the Substitution Jutsu slammed into Sakura's shoulder, burning hideously as the slug tore through skin, fat, muscle, veins, bones and vice versa, shooting through her so that the slug itself lodged in a tree branch as she sped past on a thick flat branch. The sudden explosion and rich scent of the human's blood had Alucard almost drooling - it smelled so good - even better than Integra's had been after his long imprisonment below the building his master called home.

The pain brought a shout, more like a bark, from Sakura as she stumbled on her next footstep. That turned into a leap that boosted her upwards so quickly that she seemed to vanish. When the ninja disappeared, he assumed she'd fallen from the branches they were all racing across as nimbly and agilely as cats and he paused a moment to look down. Of course, true to her training, the foot smashing into his face proved him wrong when he paused the branch she'd been shot on as she used him like a springboard to bounce to a higher branch just ten or so feet above the original branch.

Bleeding heavily from the shoulder now, her chakra covered hand over the wound trying to close it, Sakura landed on the branch above the one that Alucard had been vacated from forcefully. She watched with cold eyes as the vampire plummeted a few dozen feet before hitting the ground below. Hard. The sound was...crunchy. _'Broken bones. Good, maybe...nope. Shit.'_ Cursing mentally as the body below lay still for a second then began to move again.

He had a solid print of her foot on his face for a split second before he sat up, sunglasses broken and falling off a broken nose that cracked audibly while it fixed itself. His ribs on the left side popped audibly back into place while both of his femurs and both forearms crunched loudly as they forcefully healed. His jaw popped back into place a split second after all of that and he stood up. "Nice kick. Not as powerful as my gun however; you should try silver plating if you want to hurt me, it's much more painful."

 _'Oh great...this freak is lecturing me on how to HURT him? He's insane! No... he's smart. Too smart, how'd he manage to NOT hit any of my vitals? Another inch and I'd be bleeding out right now...geeze, he's either really good or I'm just really fucking lucky.'_ Feeling a strange sensation on the wound in the back part of her shoulder, Sakura didn't take her eyes off of the vampire as she began to move again, quickly racing faster, using her chakra to boost her jumps and running leaps until she wasn't much more than an indistinct blur of peach-tinted speed in the dark.

Her burst of speed was a bit of a farce however; she was losing strength with her blood and the chakra she had only lasted a few more minutes before she couldn't control it any longer. Jumping one last time in an effort to reach a far branch, the kunoichi cussed viciously as her jump proved to be off, and she hit the ground hard on her knees, the internal crunching sound and burst of pain on one telling her she'd just broken her left leg spectacularly.

It wasn't going to be an easy fix, even with her chakra at full capacity. She needed to find rest, food for herself and Lizzie who was still latched onto her back, plus keep them both away from the freak with the gun. _'He's obviously not normal. No one falls from more than a dozen feet and heals in seconds, not even Kakashi or Tsunade. I've never seen anyone pull themselves together like that...he must have some kind of ability since he attached his arm again...the wrong way...is he a ... a smart idiot?'_

Leaning sideways, the kunoichi grunted in pain as her leg protested viciously, then reached around in time to feel a small tongue flick out and lick her bloodied hand like a dog licking up water. More than a little dizzy and in too much pain to be fully coherent now, Sakura let out a yell that startled the demon-child enough to make her stop licking at the blood flowing from the kunoichi's shoulder. With a sharp shove, the vampire child slammed her small hands onto Sakura's back in a move that sent her sprawling with a sharp yelp of agony as the little vampire sprang backwards.

Landing on her feet a few paces away, Elizabeth finally revealed her new form to Sakura. Her face was…lined, as though she were drying out slowly from the inside. Her eyes were burning red coals in sunken sockets, and her fangs were much too large for her mouth as she opened her mouth to breathe in the scent of Sakura's blood greedily. Her expression flickered between bloodlust and terror for a few seconds before settling into a look that made the kunoichi shudder.

Lizzie wasn't Lizzie any longer. The look she had was disdainful, older and somehow more evil than any expression Sakura had ever seen before. In nearly perfect words, no stuttering or mumbling, the…creature wiped her bloody hands on her dress, staining the already dirty dress with red besides the stuff spattered onto it from the initial gunshot. "Good grief. I knew humans were messy meat-bags, but I'd thought I'd finally found a decent servant. Now that you're too injured to move properly, I suppose I'll need to find a different way to escape that horrible vampire. Too bad really, your blood tastes absolutely amazing." Looking down her nose at the woman on the ground, Elizabeth twisted her lips in disgust and then turned to leave "Have fun with th-"

 _CRACK!_

The gunshot was louder and closer than the one that had gone through her shoulder. Sakura watched as one side of the tiny child-vampire's head exploded from the shot. A small hole at her other temple the only indication of an entry wound. Elizabeth didn't even have time to blink before she died. As the body slowly slumped over, knees buckling until it hit the ground and began to turn to dust, Sakura looked over to see the tall, red figure striding forward through grey tunnel vision. "Well now. You made it much farther than expected. My master will be happy with this assignment having been completed."

Holstering his gun, the third and final bullet for the night having been fired, Alucard stooped and picked up the now unconscious, delicious smelling human woman from the ground as she passed out entirely. Tsk'ing under his breath, Alucard shook his head at human frailty, their useless strength and their completely naïve trust in anything seemingly young. For some reason he couldn't help but glance down several times at the unconscious figure in his arms as he strode the thousand or so feet to the edge of the forest and a highway where a military troop awaited orders. She never would have escaped them, even if she had been able to keep running.

* * *

And that's chapter 4! Hope you guys like it! :)

Guest 1 & 2: Thanks so much for your support guys!

9tailedspartan: It IS a pretty odd language, English seems to be one of the worst languages to learn actually, since it's got so many root languages associated to the common English we know today. At least with y'all most folks know it means you all XD


	5. Chapter 5: Consciousness

**Chapter 5: Consciousness**

Consciousness was slow in coming to Sakura. It was a slow return, but one that brought a wealth of information to her brain as she rose out of the void. Warmth was first, a feeling of heat on her body that only sunlight through a window around mid-morning can feel like. Next to register was pain. A dull throbbing sensation had spread almost throughout her entire body, but centered around her shoulder, arm, and the soles of her feet. _'Crap…that's gonna hurt when I move….'_ She could feel the bandages pressing into her torso, wrapped tightly against the wound going through her shoulder. What felt like stitches of some sort were holding the wound closed, and the bandages wrapped over a couple of thick pads of some kind against the wound, most likely to catch and absorb blood, pus and other fluid that leaked. The familiar yet not-familiar smells of a hospital much like the one back at home was enough to jolt her mind back to full awareness as to her predicament now. Against her ankles it felt as though someone had put metal on her _'Manacles or restraints of some sort.'_ She was still exhausted, her energy reserves still nearly spent though her body was rebuilding them as quickly as possible.

No other part of her body moved as Sakura opened her eyes slowly. Not so much as twitching her lips, the kunoichi glanced around to get her bearings and take stock of her situation. She was naked, whoever had treated her having cut away her make-shift clothes in order to reach her wounds and apparently clean her up a bit. She wasn't smelling like the pond and blood, sweat and other stuff now at least. Her senses hadn't deceived her too; she was wrapped in gauze, with two thick pads of cotton over the wounds that was apparently stitched up. _'Okay. What do I do now…there's cuffs on my ankles and it feels like my feet are burning…I must have thinned out my chakra too much when running around, they feel like they're too tender to stand on. Maybe…how am I getting out of here. Barred windows…? Yup. Small room…apparently stone walls…? Or something sturdy at least, I'm not in a tent or someplace easy to escape from apparently…dammit.'_ Her mind whirling now that she was awake, the kunoichi nearly missed the sound of the door to the smallish room opening.

Shutting her eyes to feign unconsciousness again, the woman held her attention fixed on the two footsteps; one set heavier and sturdier than the other, lighter set. As they approached the bed, two voices started a conversation.

"How is she?" The first to speak was a woman. She had a really strange accent, as though some of her words were pronounced sharply while others were almost slurred. The man who responded had a similar accent, but more rough, almost grumbling.

"She'll survive ma'am, although with how far she ran without shoes, I'm surprised she doesn't have deeper lacerations on her feet. Her shoulder wound luckily just nicked her collarbone on exit, but it still took a good chunk of muscle with it. Your servant is a good shot really, a millimeter down and she'd have a punctured lung." He paused, and Sakura could almost feel him working himself up to voice something else. "She is odd though, more so than I expected at least, even with what looks like natural pink hair." He trailed off a moment, then sighed when the woman made an impatient noise.

"She should be dead. Or at least been turned into a ghoul or vampire. I found traces of vampire saliva around the wound in her back, and though there isn't any bites or obvious exchanges of blood, we've got records of vampires sometimes changing their…people, with saliva alone. There was very little blood on her back considering the size of the wound, so her attacker sucked on the wound for a while. From this, we know she met the requirement for a Turn. I just can't explain it, it's like her body just doesn't register the virus or something."

"That's impossible." The woman growled the words with an annoyance that may just be part of her persona, but Sakura could feel the man almost start to tremble before he retorted heatedly "You think I don't know that? I took some samples of her blood, but within seconds of putting it on a slide the stuff is useless, it's like all of its DNA just breaks apart once it's away from her body up to a certain distance, around 2 meters."

"So why not bring your equipment to her then?" The woman asked irritably.

"I did. Her DNA is still strange, it's like she's got an extra strand linked into it. Its completely new to anything I've ever seen." He trailed off with a sigh.

The woman in the bed slowly prepared herself for pain. This talk of DNA and blood testing was disturbing to Sakura, who had extensive knowledge about it thanks to her teacher, but to have had it done without her knowledge or permission of all things was…well, she felt violated and rather confused. _'DNA...multiple strands? He did tests on me?! What the hell?! No. Nu-uh. I don't know these freaks. I'm human dammit! Fuck this, I'm out.'_

The kunoichi heard his grumble of assent when the woman responded "Fine. Get me whatever information you can on her then. Wake me up when she-!"

The woman's words cut off with a start as the pink-haired girl in the hospital bed shot out of bed and grabbed her arm. A mass of white-blond hair fluttered slightly in the rush of air produced by the unexpected speed and violent action as Sakura yanked her down onto the bed. As a pale white hand closed over a warm throat with a strength bordering on steel, icy emerald green eyes opened to stare into equally cold grey eyes. Sakura didn't bother to speak, her grip closing just shy of strangulation as she turned her head to look at the man in the room.

The guy was short, with a belly turning to pudge under a white coat similar to the scientists in her village, wearing glassed that made his eyes look enormous. Though he obviously didn't care for himself as well as he could have, he was still smart enough to not make any noise or sudden movements. He went pale and sweaty when she spoke, turning her attention back to the woman and loosening her grip slightly. "Tell me where I am, and I won't kill you."

The blond woman looked at the pink-haired, deathly pale young woman almost on top of her on the bed and nearly laughed. The girl was naked, badly injured, perhaps not entirely human but still damaged more than most could handle and yet she still, STILL! Was determined to put up a fight. _'Fascinating.'_ The amusement that flickered through the blond woman's eyes were all the warning Sakura had before she felt the cold barrel of the small snub-nosed gun tapping her temple. "I suggest you let me go and lay back down, Missy. You're too injured to be doing any killing right now."

When Sakura frowned and tightened her grip just slightly, the woman scowled and responded "You're in my private hospital after you collapsed a few miles from a road. Now lay down before you fall over." She nearly croaked the last part, and Sakura loosened her grip more than necessary…then yipped as the blond woman's hand shot out and smacked her in the shoulder. Her injured shoulder. Falling backwards against the pillow, her hand moving to her wound entirely on instinct and off of the woman, Sakura yelped as her back settled into the pillow. It was soft, yes, but any touching of the wound wasn't good at the moment either.

She was so preoccupied with the pain that she nearly missed the cold and weight of a slim steel collar snapping around her neck…and the chain attached to that having been attached to the metal railing at the head of the bed and locked into place. Effectively stuck, the kunoichi snarled and obscenity and sat back up again. The doctor had fled the scene entirely by now, and the two women were alone in the room.

 _'Should have done that first..'_ Integra looked at the pink-haired woman in front of her. Staring into eyes the bright color of new leaves, the older woman grinned as the patient tugged experimentally at the restraining device. Even with Alucard's words she didn't quite believe the girl was strong enough while injured to be able to escape the collar, never mind run for hours on end. Her grin seemed to piss the girl off, as Sakura snarled a few expletives, a red stain beginning to form through the bandages on her shoulder "Try to relax girl, the collar's only for safety purposes right now. Once we know you're not going to go wild we'll let you go. You were pretty badly injured anyways, so you may as well rest and heal up first." Her words were no warmer than they had been before, but her grin seemed to make the woman appear younger, less rigid for all of a few seconds.

"You were pretty badly beat up yesterday when we brought you in, but you'll live, though I doubt you'll be using your...knives, for a while." Having confiscated the girls belongings, including her belt pouch with the kunai, scribbled-on strips of paper and various other small items, Integra knew something of what the girl was capable of. She wasn't entirely certain as to what most of the things were for and had no intention of returning the weapons to the girl until such time as she knew the girl was trustworthy.

Sakura spat another curse, her grip on her newest imprisonment object showing bloodless knuckles as she tried to crush it. When Integra began to pace, she went still for a moment before growling "So where the hell am I then, if it's necessary to chain me up like an animal."

It was a question. Sort of. Her tone of voice was frigid and, if she'd had enough chakra would probably have left her breathing ice. Well, if she had any affinity with that part of the water element.

Integra paused in her pacing in order to narrow her eyes at the injured girl, then sighed, one hand moving to her forehead to rub it as a headache began to form. She'd been getting them more and more lately, though nothing was wrong that the physicians could find.

"My name is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, I run an organization that specifically targets the supernatural. Specifically rogue vampires and ghouls. The town where you were first seen has been completely annihilated and I want to know why. I already know the how, by ghouls, but I don't know why. The vampire you were protecting" Here Integra's words dropped to a growl that had Sakura leaning back a little in surprise at the sudden surge of anger "Was the cause of the disaster. My agents have razed the grounds where the village was. The Freak is destroyed, but what I want to know is why...and yes I suppose, how a child of all humans could have been turned into what appears to be a sentient vampire. She was young too, so she must have been fairly fresh."

Her pain ramping up a notch as the woman spoke, Sakura frowned as she struggled to process everything. _'Vampires? Those are those creatures from the West aren't they..? Blood-drinkers...ouchouchouch...but why? She looked so innocent...she was just a child..But it makes sense in a way. I knew she wasn't a normal kid at least.'_ Maybe she had a weird expression or showed some of her confusion because Integra shook her head and finally took a seat on a smallish stool near the bed. "Look. In case you've never dealt with one before, ghouls are the freshly dead, they move and have a major hunger for flesh. Vampires are their owners, folks who are drained or killed by a vampire that aren't virginal get turned into ghouls. Those who are virgins get turned into vampires. At least as far as our scientists have found so far, there's no other explanation we have for the change." She didn't elaborate further, and Sakura didn't ask.

Her shoulder was getting worse, and her skin was itching around the stitches under the bandages. Suppressing a shudder at hearing what the other woman had said, the kunoichi turned her attention to the more painfully pressing matter.

Integra watched the expressions of thought, agitation, suspicion, and horror cross over the girls' face. She was going to offer a word of comfort, somehow, when her own expression turned to confusion as the girl in the bed began to tear her bandages off. "What the bloody hell are you doing?!"

Sakura turned a completely bland stare on the woman as she swiftly began to unwind the bandaging from her shoulder with one hand. "I'm going to heal myself. What else would I be doing? Who the hell is that guy in red anyways, he's too fast to be a civilian, unless he's a master chakra user."

Integra had no idea what chakra was (there seemed to be a lot of that going around lately) she frowned before shaking her head "Alucard is different in many ways. Stop that. I'll call the nurse up to take care of it if it hurts so much." Her words were no sooner said than done. It seemed a nurse had been waiting outside for their conversation to be completed because a light knock at the door was heard over the slightly rustling and the rough breathing of the girl on the bed. Integra grabbed a chair from the far wall and took a seat, one leg crossed over her knee while she watched the odd movements of the patient.

Once Sakura had the bandaging off, she removed the padding around the wound slowly then hissed at the sight of the ginormous hole in her shoulder. Bullets in her country weren't nearly so damaging, they generally left small holes going in and out, but the bullet that the creature 'Alucard' had shot through her had gone in with a small hole and on the other side was a..."He put a crater in my shoulder." Her tone flat as she peered at the wound, stitched up and very, very red. Her green eyes narrowed as she considered the stitching done by the doctors and her lips twisted in disgust. "Apparently the doctors here don't know how to sew." Even with a wound like hers, it should have been fairly simple to cleanse the wound, remove shrapnel and disease from the wound and sew it up in a fashion that still allowed for movement and proper healing of the wound. These doctors had missed pieces of dirt or shrapnel or something, and from the heat already radiating from the wound Sakura could tell that she was gaining an infection, and their stitching was sloppy at best.

Checking her chakra energy closely, the kunoichi found it sufficient to at least get a start on healing and cleaning out the wound. Muttering "This is going to hurt like a kick to the head..." She began and Integra's eyes widened in interest before narrowing as she focused on the girls actions. The nurse in the room stilled as well, watching in fascination.

Flickering lights around her free hand signaled her chakra being used, though to the eyes of the others in the room they appeared to be faint glittering sparks rather than the slim ropes of energy that Sakura was using. She had to be careful, her chakra wasn't up to par for much beyond what she was doing now.

Integra found herself leaning forwards slightly at the fascinating phenomena, and couldn't help but wince inwardly as the kunoichi bit her lip to keep from screaming. The stitches promptly tore out of the torn flesh and a bubble filled with puss and small bits began to form on the top of the wound. Sweat broke out on the kunoichi's head and that prompted the nurse to grab a small towel and wipe it for her. The nurse then grabbed a metal dish that held cotton swabs and wipes, emptied it, and then held it under the wound as the bubble of infection grew to the size of a palm. Hissing in a breath as her chakra flickered, feeling more drained by the second, Sakura grunted as the ball of filth separated itself from her and landed in the dish with a splat that had Integra going slightly green in the face at the sound and visual.

"Pathetic. Really, what kind of useless physicians do you hire anyways? Does this land not even have such things as clean water?" Anger and pain serving to make her voice rougher, Sakura shuddered at the dulled agony that pulsed through her now that the muscle, blood, bone and skin were cleaned of infection. Her chakra nearly depleted now, there was no way she was going to allow them near her with needles and thread again, so she used just barely enough energy to set the veins and grow a very thin layer of skin to stop the bleeding. For some reason getting injured never hurt nearly as bad as healing ones own injuries. Lady Tsunade once mentioned to her during their 'training' exercises that it hurt more to heal oneself than get injured, because to heal, you had to be aware of the injury. And if it was in yourself, then you recognized it as pain faster than when you had adrenaline going during a fight and got hurt. So far Tsunade had been very right.

Affronted, Integra retorted "Excuse me? They happen to be the best physicians this side of the ocean girl, if it wasn't for them you'd have bled out hours ago!" She was very impressed, and actually found she respected this odd woman to a degree, but her people were hers and she never hired anyone but the best available in the British Empire. Sakura turned pained, furious eyes to the woman and scowled before snarling as the nurse donned gloves and began to clean the outer areas of the wound, noting the skin growth over the wound "Well if they'd done a better job then I wouldn't be needing to heal myself all over again now would I? That." She motioned with her chin to the mess of infection that had dropped into the metal bowl along with what appeared to be a small chunk of sharp stone and a bit of metal "Would have killed me by tomorrow evening if I'd left it there. Tell your doctors to get their asses back to their medical school if they're this incompetent!" Her voice had risen tremendously before a wave of dizziness forced her to lay back into the pillows, and the two women glared at each other while the nurse got Sakura's chart and began to write furiously about what had happened.

Before Integra, rather well known for her temper among other things, could blow up at that ungrateful attitude, the door to the room opened and a shorter buxom blond stood in the doorway, blue eyes blinking in consternation. "...Uhmm...is everything okay in here...?"


	6. Chapter 6: Friends?

**Chapter 6: Friends...?**

Large breasts were the first thing that came in the doorway – that and blond hair framing a pale face that looked uncertain. Sakura blinked at the woman and blinked. She wore a short-skirted uniform of some kind, very military-styled, and came to attention when Integra looked over.

There was a large trolley beside her that held a tray of food and medical supplies and the girl's blue eyes turned to it in mild sheepishness at interrupting the others' argument. "I uh...the nurse left when she heard the uh...commotion..." Her voice was mellow, perhaps a bit squeaky as she hesitated on her wording.

Integra growled, the sound raising Sakura's eyebrows for a moment, then got to her feet, a cane appearing from apparently nowhere at her side as she stormed out of the room. "I expect you'll take care of this nuisance until we get some decent information from her Seras. This is an order. I'll be in my office. Do not bother me." The words snarled, Integra left the room with the sound of her cane end hitting the floor with a faint ringing noise that had the kunoichi thinking the cane itself was hollow. It wasn't a distinct noise, just one that a ninja could discern over years and thousands of hours of work with hidden and not-so-well hidden weaponry.

After a long minute or so of utter silence, the two younger girls looked at each other, then Sakura grinned cheekily. "I hope you don't have a temper like that woman!" Seras, the blond woman, felt her eyes widen and flicker red at the insult to her mistress, and Sakura raised her eyebrows again at the sudden change in colouring. "So. You're like that creature then." Her grin lost immediately, the kunoichi cursed herself inwardly for what seemed to be the billionth time since she'd awakened. _'Way to go, insulting another creature. At this one doesn't look deranged.'_ Rolling the cart into the room, Seras smiled slightly, realizing the ploy for what it was; a test of loyalty among one of them, and shook her head slightly. "I'm only a fledgling, still more or less new to the whole undead thing. My master, he's the one who caught you, is much older than he looks, like hundreds of years or something. I don't know his true age, since his physical looks are only like, what, thirty? Anyways, I guess I get to look after you until you feel better, want to lay back and I'll take care of that wound for you?"

Sakura blinked at the sudden change in attitude, wondering if perhaps this girl was actually as unbalanced as her master, then got a look at the medical supplies on the trolley. Frowning at the expanse of them and knowing she'd be too sick to eat th food on the tray afterwards she shook her head. "No... pass me the alcohol, the stitching supplies and the bandages please. I've dealt with worse before on my own, and now that the extra infection out of my system I can take care of the rest." The woman's eyes widened at the confidence in Sakura's tone and began handing over the requested items.

Seras herself knew quite a bit of field first aid but she wasn't a field-medic or a doctor, and the way this strange pink-haired woman went about dealing with her wounds looked hideously painful. Seeing the pain etching itself into her face as she worked on herself, the fledgling vampire swallowed a mouthful of saliva as she finally registered the smell of the others' blood and attempted to distract them both from their issues. "Are you a doctor then miss...? Oh hey, I don't even know your name! I'm Seras Victoria by the way." Taking the alcohol with a bemused expression at the chattering woman, Sakura blinked then shook her head. She really didn't care much at all how old the man – _'Creature, he's not human.'_ she corrected her thought, was, she just knew he wasn't an opponent she wanted to deal with in anything less than peak condition.

As her expression turned to silently controlled agony as the alcohol burned away at the wound and cleaned it more thoroughly than her chakra control had been able to do on such a low level, she gritted her teeth and attempted to answer the question posed to her. "Sss-Sakura...just call me that..." She had no intention of letting anyone here know her full name, after all this wasn't her home, and she was definitely in over her head with the whole 'new world' she'd somehow been dumped in.

Scowling as the burning in her flesh turned to a sharp, then slightly duller ache, the kunoichi accepted the stitching equipment then spotted the local anesthetic and pointed to it, the simplest movement of her injured-side arm making her grit her teeth. Seras spoke plenty though for the both of them, passing the anesthetic over "It's nice to meet you Sakura. Heck, my first name is something I don't even know the meaning of, but I can't blame my mother for naming me something she thought was cool. Yeah, it'd probably be better to numb the skin before doing anything to it...where was I? Oh, hey, want me to sew you up? I'm pretty good at that at least, I take care of a lot of menial jobs around the estate when I'm not out hunting vampires."

Sakura looked at Seras silently, going still at the word 'vampire' that rolled so easily off of the blond woman's tongue. _'...So that's actually what they are then...that Integra woman wasn't lying. Vampires...? Kyuuketsuki? I wonder if those are the same...'_ She'd heard ghost tales of blood drinking fiends before, but those were just stories. She'd heard tales of ninja with horrible abilities like control over blood and the like but had never really considered the use of blood as a nutrient for living. Those were stories for camping with young children or such things, they weren't true...and yet...She nodded her head as the question registered, only because she could feel the tremors starting in her hands from exhaustion making it's now familiar slow creep into her muscles.

Looking over at Seras as she injected the anaesthetic into her shoulder, Sakura could see the hints of red deep within the stark, brilliant blue of the normal-seeming young woman's eyes. She had no idea if the other woman was telling the truth still but decided to gather more intelligence regarding the topic first. "So... how long have you known? About these...creatures?" Hesitant to say vampire, the kunoichi blinked in surprise as Seras stiffened slightly and then shrugged. She set the used sharp into the bio-hazard container across the room and came back before responding. "I've been one for about four or five years now I suppose...it's seemed a lot longer to me, though it sounds strange I suppose...I was a police officer when I was human."

Sakura wasn't sure what a 'Poh-lees' was, but anything to do with officers in her land tended to come from the military, and since Seras' outfit seemed to be militaristic, she didn't question the wording. For a moment old pain flickered in behind the red-flecked blue eyes as Seras sat down on the edge of the bed to thread the stitching needle for Sakura. "I and my squad had been sent out to this old church set into the forest some ways from town. We'd gone to check out some really creepy reports about people going missing and whatnot...turns out they'd been turned into ghouls...those're kind of like mindless flesh-eating machines that only obey one master if they've been bitten by a vampire then not given blood...I think, I still don't know how to turn somebody into a vampire yet." Explaining that little detail to the clueless ninja girl, Seras smiled slightly, showing a sharp fang, then continued. "Anyways...it really wasn't difficult for my friends and comrades to end up massacred." Smile was bitter at the memory as she leaned in to begin sewing up the wound in Sakura's shoulder.

"We were taken out in less than an hour by the ghouls. I somehow managed to get to church...then everything kind of goes a little fuzzy I guess. I know I was fatally shot by Alucard...so technically he killed me, but he brought me back too. I remember that much at least...and I'm grateful to him, he's my master now until I learn to cope on my own and stuff or until he gets tired of me." It was a matter of minutes to have the wound stitched up with a small tube inserted to allow drainage of any more infection her weak chakra might have missed. After a much gentler bandaging, Seras got up to dispose of the needle and leftover cord while Sakura mulled over what she'd been told. With the anaesthetic doing its work, the only thing she'd had to worry about was that familiar, faintly disgusting feeling of her flesh being tugged at as it was sewn up.

This...vampire...seemed to be more open than the kunoichi had expected, used to dealing with people more like Integra than with blond haired, bubbly Seras. She was a bit off guard, and that wasn't good but...there really wasn't any reason to distrust the information she'd received so far. "So…you now fight your own kind...? How does that work?"

The blond looked at Sakura as she poured some water from a jug into a glass and added a lemon slice before passing it to the pink-haired girl. "To be honest...? It's because most of those who turn into vampires tend to go a bit...crazy. Insanity and vampirism seem to go hand in hand apparently. It's the difference in power probably. As a human, you're weak, prey to anything really that happens to a body, in a lot of ways you're weaker than animals, who at least have natural weapons like claws, hooves or teeth, speed or endurance. Humans don't really have any of that, they're just really smart. That's basically what's allowed them to survive on a planet that's been from the start a battle of survival of the fittest." She paused a moment before continuing thoughtfully "So when a human becomes vampire, one of the fastest, strongest, most long-lived creatures on the planet, that power goes to their heads I guess...or something similar. I don't really know. All I know is that I'm killing off the Freaks who'd not look twice at killing men, women and children. They slaughter for the pleasure of it with no regard to the lives they're taking. I don't want to see friends, family members, acquaintances or even complete strangers grieving because of some assholes who gained some extra abilities take it into their heads to get hopped up on blood and pain and go on a slaughtering spree." Nearly snarling as she neared the end of her small tirade, Seras' eyes changed to red and her fangs became more pronounced. Noting the change -how could she not- the kunoichi frowned for a moment _'What the heck…is she going nuts?'_ What she did next, Sakura would blame on her last 24 hours or so that she could remember. Her own little short-term insanity so to speak.

Her frown turning into a scowl as the blond woman's snarl turned deeper at the memories she had, Sakura reached out and flicked her on the nose, half-expecting the woman to snap at her like some kind of feral dog but -almost- sure enough in her reaction speed that she could keep her fingers. Maybe.

"Ow! What was that for?" Rearing back and rubbing the offended spot, the fledgling blinked back a sudden burst of tears to her eyes at the sharp pain inflicted to her nose. Glaring through them at the ninja, blinked a few times to clear her vision. _'The teary look is kind of adorable on her…annnd now I KNOW I need some rest...'_ Lying back into the propped up pillows gingerly, not wanting to move the stitching or tube, Sakura arched an eyebrow "Your eyes turned red, your teeth grew a good quarter-inch longer and you looked like you were going to start foaming at the mouth. Not very smart if you're supposed to be on of the…how did you put it…'The fastest, strongest, most long-lived species'? I wanted to see your reaction times. Not very good if you couldn't even avoid me at one of the worst times in my life. You might want to work on that…Seras..." Seras blinked at the exhausted woman in the bed and smiled wryly, her eyes back to being their normal blue once more.

"Sorry about that Sakura, I'm not too great at holding in my emotions when it comes to those things out there. You look exhausted though, get some rest, and we'll chat tomorrow okay?"

"Alright, same time?"

"Sure." Getting up from the bed, the fledgling vampire left the room as Sakura sank into the blessed nothingness of sleep. Seras went to make her report from there.

 **4 Days Later**

"Knock-knock, anybody here?" Seras peeked into the hospital styled room where Sakura had been healing since her arrival, then blinked in surprise at the empty bed and room. "...Guess not...now where could – Oh no, seriously?! SAKURA!" Eyes widening as their conversation from yesterday repeated in her head, Seras turned and dashed for the outdoor training grounds.

 _FLASHBACK_

"So, what all do you guys do for fun around here anyways Seras?" Sakura stretched slowly, only the faintest stiffness in her shoulder attesting to the near-critical injury she'd suffered a few scant days past. Seras lounged on the bed while Sakura did some of her stretches, watching intently as the kunoichi practised the forms of Tai Chi, a good thing to do after one was injured and on the mend. The two had quickly become great friends, and though Integra and Sakura hadn't -quite- gotten to seeing eye-to-eye the two were at least somewhat civil to each other for the moment. Integra was a formidable woman, and in some odd ways reminded Sakura of Lady Tsunade, harsh but fair, a bit rougher than her teacher and certainly more 'manly' than any woman Sakura had ever encountered before, but not someone she wouldn't follow if her own loyalties weren't what they currently were. All in all her imprisonment was pretty much done now, so Sakura was itching to explore.

Chewing idly on a pencil end, the vampire regarded the kunoichi's smooth, even movements with a faint hint of jealousy as she responded. "Not too much actually, there's a bar a few floors up from here, there's a pool and billiards table, Foosball and sports balls of all kinds if you're not interested in fighting practice outside in the practice fields…There's a couple huge gardens and I think the grounds themselves around to or three hundred acres in size, give or take. Plenty of forest and stuff too."

"Ngh...tell me about the practice fields? They sound interesting, I might want to give it a shot in a while." Flowing into another stance, one that stretched her shoulder a fair ways that involved some pain she made sure to note, Sakura frowned when Seras bolted upright on the bed. "No way! That's where all the military guys practice fighting Sakura! You'd never last a minute with them in your condition! Remember, you're still injured?" Raising her eyebrows, Sakura snorted at the vampires' words. "I'm fine now Seras. If I'm up and around now I'll be fine by tomorrow anyways, and I don't want my skills to get rusty." "But you still need at least another week to heal up! Promise me you won't go to the training field until you feel better! Promise!" Stunned at the honest, sincere concern in the other woman's words and expression, Sakura paused her Tai Chi and looked at her seriously. After a long moment, the kunoichi smiled and nodded "Alright fine, until I feel one hundred percent then, I promise not to go to the training fields."

 _END FLASHBACK_

Racing for the training grounds Seras cursed herself, realizing the trap she'd set herself up into for that promise the day before. _'When she 'feels better' I said! Argh, I should have realized she was already FEELING BETTER! Why did I not notice that word-play?!'_ Screeching around the corner, Seras nearly ran into Alucard, skidding to a halt just before she smacked into his chest. "And where are you going Police Woman?" The nickname for her had been used since they'd met, and she found it to be a bit of an annoyance nowadays more than anything, but she let it go and nearly danced around him to keep going. "Sorry Master, I'm in a really big hurry right now! Sakura's run off to the training grounds and she's gonna get herself killed if I don't stop her!" Not even pausing really to explain matters further to her master who she'd never before treated in such a disrespectful manner, Seras raced off leaving Alucard in her proverbial dust. He stood still for a long moment before grinning slowly and sliding into the shadows silently to follow. This could prove interesting indeed. That strange, bubble-gum haired woman hadn't truly left his thoughts for the last four or five days, and to see her now, injured still apparently yet up and running around had piqued his interested greatly though he didn't even begin to question why.

 _'_ _This should be interesting.'_

* * *

Thank you so much for the encouragement in my re-writing of this story folks, it means a lot to me that you took time to say you love this story! I'll reply to each one of ya here!

TechnoGalen: Kishimoto garbage? Really? If you don't like it, don't read it. As if you could do better.

Ms. Meow 1968: Thank you! I try hard to keep the characters to their normal behaviors for now, though I can't guarantee things won't change a bit as the story continues, what with a few things I have planned~~

Guest: I can only imagine, but I've been told my imagination is pretty strong so...yeah...that must have sucked big time for Sakura...but don't worry, she'll get her revenge!

Razmire: Yyeah...there will be a more detailed altercation sometime in the future between those two lovely ladies...please look forward to it!

Brooke: Agh you reply each timmmeee! You are amazing! Thank youuuu! 3

DGM100: Ta-da! I updated less than 24 hours after you reviewed! XD

Thank you so much for the compliments guys and gals and everything/one in between(must be politically correct nowadays after all -shrug-) I love you're encouragement and even your somewhat opinionated comments will keep my creative brain going! Just remember that I delete anything super negative, but feel free to give me constructive criticism if you'd like!

I'm always looking to improve further!

Thank you all so much again, and please look forward to the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7: Fight

Sakura was already out on the training grounds, the evening air crisp and rapidly cooling. She was feeling good, much better than those first couple of days stuck in the bed, dealing with her own wounds. Her muscles were aching for a different reason now, itching to exercise more than they'd been allowed to since her arrival. Tai Chi just wasn't cutting it anymore for the kunoichi.

Leaning against a solid wooden fence she looked out over the training grounds at a group of soldiers being hollered at by their commanding officer. All twelve of them were filthy from crawling on the ground to get underneath a bunch of coiled barbed wires. _'...Huh...that's almost dirtier than my training back home...'_ She grinned slightly, remembering some of her 'training' exercises that Lady Tsunade had put her through. It had been extremely rough training but Sakura hadn't given up at all for the most part, if anything she'd begged her for more just to learn any tip or trick that the older woman had in her arsenal of medical and general knowledge. Well, once Sakura had healed herself from the previous rounds of course. Another part of Tsunade's teaching was how to handle pain, something the kunoichi thanked her for silently nearly every day.

Sakura was dressed in a clean camouflage patterned outfit, her original kunoichi outfit had been completely annihilated thanks to her strange transportation to this land, and her bandage-clothes had been cut off her, so the medics could deal with her wounds. Also, apparently the remaining fabrics in her own arsenal were just not strong enough to withstand the fabric cleansers in this land. They had pretty much dissolved, which was something the young woman had shuddered at a bit when she'd thought it over and found out that the 'washer-women' in this land touched the chemicals with their bare hands, or flimsy rubbery gloves that broke often.

Resolving to clean her own clothing with products she'd make herself if she had down-time, Sakura had found a pair of army fatigues and turned them into her own version of a ninja-slash-military outfit: Form-fitting pants in sturdy cotton, a cotton tank top, a mesh under-shirt laced with a series of thin wires (the maker was a thin, balding man who made what he called 'spy gear' and said this was something that was an idea he'd gotten from seeing old fashioned chain mail…whatever that was.) She also had reinforced jacket that she modified for easier movement but equal protection.

Finally, Sakura had managed to find a pair of decent leather sandals at the back of a storage room that she had converted into a serviceable pair of footwear for herself. Her headband was wrapped more securely around her upper arm and her hair was out of her face with a strip of camouflage fabric she'd cut from the pants when they had proved too long for her legs.

Her outfit in total was somewhat sensual in appearance since the vest-jacket was also form-fitting to an extent even with it's bulkiness containing plates of some kind that would apparently slow down a bullet enough to not hit her organs…somehow. The scientist explaining it to her had just served to add to her confusion so Sakura had jut gone along with it, and the plating wasn't heavy in the least compared to some of the things that her friends had trained with. To complete her gear, her pants were buckled with a sturdy black belt holding her older pouch which had survived the transport to this world, alongside two others she'd re-made during her down-time. She also had a smaller pouch on a thigh-belt which held what everyone considered to be just scraps of paper and writing equipment.

The pink haired woman had received several leering looks and a few catcalls when she'd first arrived but ignoring them all had worked so far as she was concerned. Crossing her wrists over each other with her elbows on the fence Sakura relaxed as she watched the soldiers training. She had already been to the sparring arena as well, and from her standpoint there was a lot of work to be done with the soldiers.

Granted, everyone that she saw was in impeccable condition if you went for muscle-bound people who were strong and fast at first, but there was so much more one could do against these...undead...things that didn't involve shooting them then running away or getting eaten. Stamina seemed to be a basic requirement to a degree here but everyone seemed to be prizing strength and burst-power more than prolonged speed and agility.

Sakura was still struggling with that idea. _'These guys are just…doing it all wrong. The creatures aren't stupendously fast, if anything the fastest one I've seen so far has moved at around a fast walk, so unless the Freaks can run it's not like the living need to have a huge amount of stamina to evade…so why don't they just guarantee their survival more with an equal mix of stamina and strength…the only thing they're doing is running and that weird crawling-under-sharp-wire stuff. And it's not as though the dead need to eat…so why are they? What is it in them that makes them hungry? What happens if a ghoul is left without a master, does it just collapse like a puppet without strings? Go feral? It can't possibly come back to itself as a human…? There're so many questions…and I was licked by that little vampire girl, her saliva was in my wounds and all around them. Was she too…new? I'm not a vampire, I tested that yesterday with sunlight. It's taken forever for my chakra to return to normal…is it this worlds' atmosphere? Ley lines? So many questions, and not enough answers is driving me nuts.'_ Her internal monologue was getting long by now, and as her thoughts turned to more questions, the woman frowned.

Seras had told her so much over the last few days; about the vampires, the ghouls and the organization that helped to deal with them. Since everyone in the organization called the ghouls Freaks, she'd begun to as well in some ways, and had seen a few more since her arrival here. Apparently, there was a rather interesting scientist in the middle levels of the place that had made a study of the ghouls. He was on the outside-most section of the manor though, behind solid steel doors that only opened when someone ID'd themselves three different ways, just in case.

On her third day of recovery he had stopped in to introduce himself as Arnold McKenzie; a weird name that the pink-haired girl had some trouble pronouncing at first, though she'd quickly picked up on it. It was odd to her that she could completely understand the people in this land –though perhaps not so much their idioms– yet their lips moved oddly on the words that translated into her own native tongue in her mind. Just another question to add to her list. She'd gone down to the laboratory with Arnold a few hours after meeting him and had seen the two Freaks that he held captive, restrained with steel and titanium manacles to two cold lab tables. Their mouths were sealed shut with muzzles, teeth removed, and their mouths were stuff with cotton to keep them from eating themselves while they were being examined. Their manacles covered their hands entirely to prevent grabbing or scratching as well, and he had had their feet removed, covered in bandages and strapped down as well.

He'd allowed her to see some of his research paperwork on the undead and his work had piqued her curiosity. It had fascinated her, completely amazed her to see the 'infection' working on the remains of their brains. They _were_ corpses, the bodies on the table, and the infection that was running through them, with very little in the way of circulation, certainly not enough to retain normal life as a human.

When bitten by a vampire, if the DNA within the corpse was not in the process of adjusting due to the interference of another person's DNA (ie. Having had sex within the past year) the DNA of the vampire began to over-ride the human DNA. Somehow – and this is still unknown – this was possible in this world. The infection was not a bacterium but was closer to a virus in how it propagated, yet the only way for it to change a human was under these certain conditions:

human must be, if not virgin, then having no other DNA from a human within their bodies.

human must not be sick.

transfer process required a great amount of the infected, ie. Vampire, blood entering the human system in order for the infection to gain a foot hold.

As for the ghouls…

There was absolutely no life in the corpses. Yet, they moved and functioned as thought to satisfy humanity's most basic of instincts; Eat.

Comparisons between a scan of a live human brain and that of a Ghoul were obvious in their differences. While a human brain was living, energy went through each pathway, every neuron and synapse worked...but with a Ghoul...only the brain stem and amygdala functioned fully, there was no 'life' within it, no memories or personality, nothing except the need for food.

The virus that grew in these creatures WAS highly contagious, not passed on in the methods explained above but by just a scratch or bite, the virus became a sort of mutated version of the vampire bite. Anyone injured by these ghouls became one. No vampires involved.

Speaking of vampires, they could control the ghouls to an extent. If left alone the Ghouls were nothing but feeding machines _'And what an end to the world that would be…'_ Shuddering at the thought, Sakura refocused her attention to the training grounds as the leader of this filthy group blew a whistle to signal the end of their exercise.

The group of soldiers-in-training went on break shortly after, and a few ambled over to her. They walked cocky, as though they knew they could take on anything. It was obvious even from a glance that the young men were rookies. Green eyes blinked once in recognition when the men partially surrounded her, and Sakura turned around to lean against the fence. "Heeeyyyyy pretty girl, you wanna spend some time with us?" The lead guy asked, leaning way too far into her personal space.

He was tall, maybe blond under the mud covering him, a bit overly-muscular, with some definition going on in his stomach region that if he'd been a nicer guy and less cocky Sakura may have felt some attraction. As it was, his coming into her slightly PTSD'd self wasn't winning anyone any brownie points. Raising an eyebrow, she snorted quietly. "I'm not interested."

Most of the group that had come over shuffled slightly, one muttering what sounded suspiciously like "Bitchy~" and earning a snigger from a couple others. The lead guy lost his grin pretty quickly.

She had to give him credit, the guy didn't get obviously mad at first. Except he got even closer and put his hand on her shoulder heavily "Aw, c'mon babe, we'll go out and have a drink, maybe some dancing, maybe later we can do something more fun." He grinned a bit forcefully at her, then yelped and let her go when she pinched the skin between his thumb and forefinger viciously.

"I said no. Did you not hear me with all that mud in your ears?" Her tone growing frigid at the idiots' insistence, Sakura shoved away from the fence and started walking past him. She'd intended on going to the sparring arena to limber up and get her muscles back to fighting form when he spat loudly and hollered "Stupid cunt wouldn't know a good time if it rammed itself up her ass."

' _Well...he should be a nice warmup.'_ Stopping short at the taunting, bullying tone, the kunoichi turned slowly as a chorus of guffaws and hoots erupted from the group behind her. Her expression was frozen, green eyes glittering like chips of glass. Her expression slowly morphing into a haughty, snobby expression that brought a silence to some of the smarter men in the group, Sakura pursed her lips as though to think for a moment. Those pursed lips slowly turned into a smile that very much didn't reach her eyes.

A few of his hangers-on buddies began to look a bit nervous as she slowly took the few steps back towards them, shuffling a bit out of her way as she moved. She wasn't the most voluptuous of women, hell her chest was barely a C-anything, but she knew how to make herself slink when needed. Training as a kunoichi had been tough just from the sheer power that was needed, but Tsunade had also been her mentor in infiltration techniques, and Sakura had become quite good at emphasizing her appeal to men. The lead man – and she used that term loosely – leered as Sakura approached, putting just the right amount of sway into her hips.

He didn't notice the few concerned mutters that began to spread as a few of the guys remembered a rumour about an 'odd girl' in the compound. With her flak jacket opened a bit, just enough to highlight her breasts and cleavage through the tight jacket and tank-top, she knew she had him when the guy swallowed hard and he began to obviously pitch his tent before nightfall. Getting up close and real personal, but not – quite – touching him, the pink haired woman smiled…then reached down and grabbed a handful of him right in the junk.

The guy let out a strangle squeal as her extremely strong hand got hold of his half-erection and squeezed, twisting for good measure as she brought herself up on tip-toe so she could get in his face. The guys around him winced and moved their hands to cover their own crotches, not one of them wanting to come to their buddy's aid as her smile turned much less welcoming. In a tone so sweet it made her own teeth ache, she responded as the guy gasped for breath between whimpering "From what I can see you have nothing that could even be called foreplay pal, now if you want to keep this tiny, limp little noodle I suggest you fuck off and go hump one of those barbed-wire fence posts. It's about all it's good for." She'd learned some interesting words during her few days' stay as well, and to be brutally honest? She loved those words – fuck off – the most so far.

When he wheezed in a breath for another round of squealing, she let him go and let him hit the dirt on his knees before turning her back on him. Walking out of the group who made way for her entirely too quickly, Sakura smiled more fully, showing more teeth than seemed normal to most of them. The leading male grunted and then started swearing as he struggled to get to his feet, both hands cupping his crotch still _'No sense, no feeling…'_ She hated idiots. And though this guys' hair was close to Naruto's colour, everything else about him was entirely too different.

She hadn't thought about Naruto in quite a long while since he'd gone off for training with the Sage Jiraiya. She'd remembered him and his promise occasionally, but since she'd gotten here she'd not really had much time to think about Home. When the guy's buddies sniggered as he floundered in the mud Sakura headed for the indoors, calling back over her shoulder. "If you honestly think you can take me big guy, feel free to, after you've hit the showers. You stink like a pig in horse shit."

Twenty minutes later she was in the workout room, waiting her turn for the first of four smaller sparring arenas (a large room covered in floor mats, marked out into separate areas for sparring groups) to open for her to use. The sensei there wanted to see her ability, so she waited by warming up on the treadmill, moving at a strong, loping run that already had her at nearly 18 miles, when a bull-like yell came from behind her. Gripping the bars to either side of the treadmill, she used her upper body strength to flip up and to the side just before the blondie from the field lashed out with ham-sized fists. He got caught up in the treadmill as she flipped over the device and out of his reach.

Skidding back a few inches on the old wooden floors when she landed, her momentum sent a shriek of rubber on wood that brought the entire room to a halt. Sakura's face was settling into a grim smile as she straightened and watched him recover his balance from overdoing the swing and then having to fight the fast-moving treadmill, so he wouldn't get thrown off of it. Raising an eyebrow, not phased in the slightest that he'd do something so stupid as sneak up behind her only to yell before he swung his fist. "Is that chivalry or something in this land? You let your opponent know you're behind her before you attack? No wonder you guys are still in training. You're what, twenty-six, twenty-seven? Almost past your prime and you're still only working on the physical strength of a cow." Yeah, not the best of taunts, but she'd been just getting into her pace and hated it when she was disrupted so abruptly like that. Not even winded from running farther in less time than it took three quarters of the people there to do, Sakura had changed out of the flak jacket and had left it in a corner to pick up later just wearing the pants, tank top and shoes.

Blondie snarled a curse as he righted himself fully, then pointed at the arena "Get in there, I'll show you past my prime!" Sakura snorted, trying not to laugh, then looked to the sensei there who was coaching two others in some type of sport that seemed to be a lot of punching and not much footwork. He had been watching her for the last while as she'd run and had caught the entire scene as it unfolded, as had most of the others in the room thanks to her loud landing.

Seeing her and the guy, he shrugged and shooed the others out of the arena, giving them what looked like a much-needed break. The poor guys looked like they were going to keel over, and the other one had a bloody nose. The trainer's expression was somewhat concerned when the people got up into the ring and he really saw how small the girl was compared to the hulking soldier on the other side of the ring. At first, he was tempted to call it off and send the blond guy for disciplinary restrictions, but when Sakura shook her head with a small, knowing smile, he shrugged. It wasn't his place to break up a quarrel like this, though he'd be in between the two like a shot if blondie turned vicious.

Someone hit the music when Sakura began to stretch, a cheerful beat that was fast paced and energetic, a song she recognized as an interesting one named Glitter and Gold. She had no idea who sung it, but they were a good singer _'And I think I can work with this beat too…wonder how long he'll last.'_ Her smile decidedly cruel, Sakura knew this little fight would most likely settle her reputation with the lower ranks as someone not to be bothered. Blondie didn't even bother with warming up like some foolish newcomer to a sparring match would, he just climbed into the square and put on a pair of thick boxing gloves over his hands to turn them into things that looked kind of like wrecking balls attached to his arms.

Green eyes narrowing slightly as she began another stretch, Sakura already had a plan in mind for dealing with him. She wouldn't get too close to him except to attack, he wasn't too fast but he was stronger than your average bystander, and trained at least a little bit in military exercises. _'This'll be interesting, I should have at least a warm up, just need to keep him from grabbing me with those…mittens…?'_ When the bell dinged, signalling them to go, she went on the defensive.

As he charged for her, he began to wave his hands around, punching out in straight lines centered from his chest. Sakura blinked, dancing backwards towards a corner just barely out of his reach each time he lunged forwards. This wasn't really a fight yet, and her smile disappeared quickly as he pressed her backwards towards the edge of the mats and a set of posts, two per corner to demarcate each sparring section. If no one was sparring in a section, it was roped off with some stretchy ropes, which effectively cut the room into 4 sections.

As Blondie pushed her to within a few feet of the posts in one corner, she very neatly folded in half at the waist, flipping herself upwards and back onto the post-top. Her feet barely touched the post before she was air born again.

Her own strength was NOT proportionate to her body, it had become obvious for her at a very young age hen she and her 'Inner Sakura' had become more apparent, but it was astonishing to those who didn't know. When she sailed up over Blondie's head and landed on the opposite side of the arena. As she balanced perfectly on the opposite post, Blondie whirled around and sneered "You running away now huh? Scared?"

"Why the hell would I be scared of a snail like you? You don't know how to judge ability at all, you're rash and don't know how to use your brain to figure out strategy at all. I'm not scared of you. I pity you." Even with the light-hearted taunting her smile didn't return. Her words were plain, blunt to the point of being accusatory, but simple enough to understand by everyone there. It elicited a round of hisses and 'Ooohs' from the crowd slowly beginning to grow around the marked area. When Blondie growled like some kind of dog and charged at her, aiming a kick at her spot on the post, Sakura shook her head again and leapt, diving over his head, her hands landing squarely on his shoulders, which she used, grabbing handfuls of his shirt in her fists.

For a split second she was suspended above him by doing a handstand on his shoulders. Letting out her own yell, more of a battle cry than anything, she used her momentum, and a bit of chakra to supplement her strength and weight further...and dropped. Taking him with her. She literally threw him over her head when her feet landed on the arena floor. His going airborne wasn't her finishing move however; as a quick boost to her nicely warmed up body allowed her to move faster.

His yelp of surprise was cut off abruptly when he began to fly, making it about halfway to where he would have landed when she seemed to shimmer into place above him, her speed increased until she was where she needed to be, directly over his mid-section. Her own feet were maybe a third of his own, but when she hit him with it, he'd later detail the strike as getting hit with a boulder twice his own body size and at least three times his weight.

He hit the ground first of course, the shockwave from her landing on him with both feet making the entire room shudder. People around the mansion alternated between yelping, diving for cover, or looking for the artillery shell that had to have gone off. The impact on the wooden floor shattered it, creating a crater twice Blondie's diameter under them both. His eyes had rolled back in his head, but he was alive when she stood up, standing squarely on his chest.

Face serious, she tilted her head, the faint crack of her neck audible in the sudden dead silence, followed by a deep, harsh breath of air that two stunned lungs dragged in from the man laying unconscious on the ground. A small thread of chakra made sure she didn't kill him, and Sakura breathed her own silent sigh of relief when he did take a breath. _'The last thing I want is to be stuck killing someone these guys can use as canon-fodder later…'sides, he's not all bad. Just an idiot I guess. Must have grown up without parents or something, no manners at all.'_ Her Inner Sakura hollering a victory, the pink-haired woman stepped off him lightly as the sensei scrambled forward after a moment of stunned shock. Her movement seemed to bring everyone else out of their shock, and a medic was called to haul Blondie off to the infirmary while some of the more mature men approached her with grins and back slaps.

And that's when Alucard and Seras arrived, the vampire girl skidding in first and skidding to a stop in shock to see her slimmer, more delicate looking friend still standing while one of the biggest bullies in their organization was being carried away on a stretcher.

Alucard began to grin like a loon as he entered, knowing full well what had happened and wanting more than ever to spar with the pink hair woman who had now made her way out of the arena to grab a drink, not even mildly scratched or bruised. The men who'd congratulated her were already going back to their training, though their energy levels seemed to be more intense than before her little performance.

Seras grinned slowly after that as well and then started laughing at the stunned faces of some of the others still stunned in the room. "You...you guys...You guys are IDIOTS if you think she's normal like you all are! She could go against Alucard for HOURS and has!" That had many, many faces going dead white and most of the remaining crowd scattered.

Sakura called back to the orderlies carrying Blondie out of the room "He's not dead, but he'll be unconscious for a few hours...I hope his commanding officer gives him some nasty chores to do afterwards, maybe teach him some manners about women." Seras came up to the kunoichi with a laugh, clapping her friend on the shoulder with a bit more force than a human and was delighted when Sakura only grunted at the impact. "I thought you were supposed to be _resting_. Aren't you still injured?" Suddenly completely serious, the vampire girl looked Sakura over carefully, sniffing the air gently for the scent of blood and faintly surprised when she didn't find any.

Sakura shook her head "I'm fine, I heal faster than the average person. It comes with the territory where I'm from. Sorry I made you worry but I just couldn't stay in that room any more. Too closed in, and I needed some exercise...You." Her eyes narrowed when she spotted Alucard, fear flashing in her eyes for a moment only, then replaced with anger, tempered with wariness. She hadn't wanted to be caught after all, though she supposed she ought to thank him for the 'help' with the child...vampire...thingy.

 _~'No need for thanks little mortal...it's not often I get to have such fun anymore...'~_ The voice that intruded so suddenly had the ninja girl twitching, and her anger burned brighter in her eyes as Seras looked between her and her master, who still grinned like an idiot, showing fangs and everything until he spoke "If you wish for exercise, why don't you try me on for size." The tone was almost sexual, his voice had gone so deep. There was a fervor sparking in those narrow, deep red eyes that belied that tension however; a spark that began to ignite in the deep green of the kunoichi in response.

That had Seras nearly fainting at the energy that suddenly spiked in the room between the two who faced each other. Sakura blinked after a moment then lifted her chin defiantly and Alucard with his typical grin of insanity firmly fixed to his face dipped his chin a bit so the two could look at each other straight on. After a moment Seras cleared her throat, wincing visibly when both turned to look at her, effectively breaking the tension "Uhm...no offence but uh...she broke the arena." Sakura blinked, then peered around her friend to see the giant hole in the arena floor that she'd made. "Oops…I'll fix that."

Shrugging, Sakura turned to look at Alucard with a very feral grin of her own "Meet me at the edge of the forest when the moon touches the tree tops." Alucard nodded, looking thoughtful for once "Time frame from then 'til dawn?" At the ninja girls' nod, he grinned again then bowed elegantly as she added in a wry tone "Weapons of any type are allowed, but no direct-kill shots against the mortal, got it?"

"As you wish."

And that is IT for this chapter, and all of the chapters I've previously written so far! Don't worry, Chapter 8 is already in the planning stage so it should be out soonish!

I've gotten a TON of reviews from everyone, mostly Guests(?! C'mon guys, sign IN to post, I wanna mention you properly!) who say they love my writing and I LOVE YOU ALL for that encouragement! Thank you so MUCH! Here's some responses to those with words for me OTHER than awesome-as-feck praise:

Judgesg: This chapter is basically a teaser for the responses from everyone regarding her strength and skills, there'll be more awesome reactions/consequences/hilarity in the next chapters~!

Razmire: Those two lovely ladies ARE going to have a throw-down as well eventually, though it may not go as we think it will, it's still just an idea in my head right now...and yes, Alucard will enjoy the chaos, the psychotic feck.

Guest: Katon no Jutsu is Sasuke's signature in his childhood, so I won't have Sakura use that in my world cross-over.

Guest: Sorry if my paragraphs seem long or are too hard to read, I suggest slowing down and enjoying it more, it's not difficult to read as it is. The sectioning of spoken words between characters is useful, but I will not do that for the next chapters because I'm not creating a Script to be read by others. Most books do not strictly do just the sectioning part between dialogue and people either. I hope you can learn to enjoy the story further, but I won't change the writing style aside from saying that I will TRY to add more sectioning for dialogue but will not go too far out of my way to ensure it happens for EVERY conversation.

And that's that! Thanks SO MUCH for reading, and I KNOW this is more like a teaser than an actual fight, but the next chapter is shaping up to be quite fun! I can't guarantee it'll be posted super-soon thanks to real life chaos happening with my home and stuff, but I will get it posted ASAP!


	8. Chapter 8: Rush

**Chapter 8: Rush**

The moon was just peeking over the treetops when the crowd had finished gathering in the field beside the mansion. Floodlights had been set up in a wide rectangle, illuminating the seventy or so people milling around, trying to get a look at the petite woman with pink hair. Once the alarms for fire, proximity, intruder, and various other systems had been dealt with thanks to Sakura's impact using Blondie (whom she'd found out was named Jake) the rumor mill had exploded.

Thanks to the eye witness 'testimony' from the men who had been in the room for her little tiff with Jake, every man and woman in the crowd knew that Sakura wasn't some normal human woman, even those who were normally too caught up in their own studies and research to pay attention to newcomers knew who she was. To start off with, as soon as she arrived, the entire mass of humanity divided up the middle, so she could walk untouched to the make-shift starting line, a white rope stretched out on the grass. It had only been around two hours or so since the fight, but she was at full chakra levels thanks to some heavy-duty meditation.

Going up against what appeared to be an all-powerful demonic man wasn't something the kunoichi would do under normal circumstances but Seras had assured her that he just wanted to get a measure of her abilities. Her assurances kind of rang false with that very toothy grin he'd had earlier.

' _If he didn't grin so damned much he'd be handsome…wait, what. What. Oh no, HELL NO.'_ That disturbing thought had the woman shaking her head quickly as she approached the much taller, severe-looking silver-haired woman standing near the starting point. Integra and she had clashed a few more times when orders from the woman had been handed down during Sakura's bed-ridden time, and the kunoichi hadn't jumped to answer them immediately.

' _I know we're going to have some kind of explosive bout soon enough…but this woman just gets on my nerves. She's apparently some kind of noble in this country, so I try to be polite in declining her requests for more information on my homeland and their practices, but she then turns around and threatens me? Rude, inconsiderate, and yes, she might have essentially saved my life thanks to that vampire guy killing that vampire child, but that doesn't give her the right to order me around. I never signed any scrolls stating I'd swear allegiance to her Order, and there's no way in hell I'm going to do so when I don't know if I can even go back home. But she's so DAMNED PUSHY.'_ Making a small grimace for a second as Integra began to turn towards her from looking out at the forest, the kunoichi replaced it with a blank expression to match the cold one the other woman sported.

"Good, you're here. Alucard will be here as well in a few moments." Brisk and to-the-point as always, Integra looked over the much shorter woman, dressed in her odd mix of clothing she had – from all reports – tailored herself. She knew that the girls' weapons had been returned to her, and that she had acquired more since Walter had been nearly over the moon after investigating her tools of the trade.

"They are nearly identical to old fashioned assassination tools used in the far East, Lady Integra. I would almost go so far as to say that she is from that island location of Japan, though perhaps from a timeline not quite up-to-date with our own, if she truly knows how to use these items in question." His voice had been nearly as excited explaining the uses of some of her tools as when he got to take out a mob of Freaks. Of course, there had been other tools he'd had no idea about, but that was something Integra intended to have Alucard report on once this exercise was over.

"Of course. There will be rules for this fight, but I hope you don't impose too many on the Vampire Guy." Integra snapped out of her quick bout of memory at the calm, collected tones that the younger woman spoke in and looked at her. Pulling a cigar from her pocket, the silver-haired woman lit it up with a match and took a deep breath of the sweet-smelling smoke before answering. "Of course. You are still far too intriguing to let loose to Death's door just yet. We only just managed to bring you back from it."

"You mean I brought myself back from it after your fool of a doctor patched me up so badly." Arching an eyebrow, Sakura shook her head.

"I meant us having killed the leech you had picked up on your strange arrival to this land, bringing you back here with a bullet wound, patching you up and providing you a safe place to recover." Her tone becoming waspish and chastising, Integra retorted calmly enough, only to frown as Sakura responded in kind.

"A bullet wound I'd not have had if your pet vampire hadn't gone trigger-happy and shot me." The two women stared each other down for a long minute and the closest soldiers and attendees held their breath to see what would happen next.

"Well now, I haven't actually apologized properly for that, have I." The chuckle that followed the statement brought everyone's attention around to the deep shadows just outside of the floodlights' range. Two red eyes and a very toothy grin materialized first, the shadows flickering up to form a shape Sakura was beginning to know. The shadows almost moved like liquid smoke in some ways, with flicks and twists like that of water here and there before Alucard stepped into the floodlights. His hat and sunglasses _'Still not sure why he uses them at night, maybe for a fear-factor?'_ were the last to form before the tall man stepped into the light. Those around him quickly backed off, leaving a wider area of emptiness around the vampire as he walked calmly over to the two women.

"Good of you to join us so punctually Alucard." Integra flicked a glowing ember from her cigar as her servant bowed to her, then looked over at the kunoichi "We'll continue that discussion later. Are you both ready?"

Both positive responses brought a slight smile to her face for a moment, and then Integra looked out at the forest before beginning to lay out the rules of the fight. "You both have use of the entire forest for the night, all of our soldiers have been pulled to within 5 kilometers of the compound and mansion, so do try not to kill them. I hate having to pay out accidental death fees to families and lawyers. Alucard is restricted from killing unless the woman can injure him badly enough to warrant it. If something unexpected occurs you are to both return here for further instructions, you both have the new communications devices for long-range use." Taking a puff of her cigar again absently, the smoke trailed out of her mouth as the silver-haired woman continued "You both have until dawn to show off and cause chaos, though I do not wish to see the entire forest destroyed. If it is there will be hell to pay for you both. Now, get going."

Her words were as ever no-nonsense and abrupt and it took Alucard a second to decide which way he'd like to go. Walking towards the shadows past the floodlights back the way he'd come, the vampire considered his options. He had his guns with him, but that would be too easy, and this amount of freedom he'd been given was rare. _'Perhaps a game of rabbit versus hound….'_

Sakura imitated the soldiers who saluted to their commanders, her hips tilted slightly at an angle to her shoulders to show she was being more cheeky than respectful. Of course, she couldn't resist tweaking the stiff woman's nose with a cheerful "Aye ma'am, thank you ma'am, kiss my ass ma'am!" Before she was off and running.

A soldier at the very back of the crowd snickered in the sudden dead silence, and the faint blush of humiliation tinged Integras cheeks a split second before her eyes narrowed and she dropped her cigar end into the grass, stepping on it with a bit more force than she normally did. _'That girl is going to regret that tone in front of my men._ ' "Whoever it is that laughed is getting a cut in their pay." Sakura on the other hand was a good 100 meters into the forest by the time her sentence ended.

* * *

Alucard slipped into the shadows much quicker than when he had come out of them, his attention on the retreating figure in the woods. She had somewhere managed to attain a tin of wood ashes and some charcoal dust, and any part of her skin was covered in the grey-black stuff, allowing her to blend in seamlessly with the shadows when she stood still.

' _Smart choice, if I was following her just by sight…'_ For a long ten minutes he followed the fleeing figure before an odd thing caught his attention. No matter how long she ran, she didn't slow her gait or speed in the slightest, something that a running human of any sort tended to do over long periods of time.

Just as this realization crossed his mind, the fleeing figure stopped and turned to look back, perched on a thin branch near the top of a tree overlooking a steep cliff into a ravine. "It's not difficult to mimic a person, it's the chakra needed to support it that's hard….and your chakra sticks out like a sore thumb." She called out loudly, a wide grin shining against the darkness of her face, back-lit by the moon.

The words were backed up by a puff of smoke smelling vaguely like peaches and incense and the figure was replaced by a small wooden doll that proceeded to drop into the ravine below. Slipping from the shadows, Alucard started to smile…then chuckled…then laughed. "Heheheh…hahahaha…oh this is going to be FUN!" Before he disappeared into a swarm of bats that began to spread out over the forest in search of his new toy.

Sakura had split off from her double a few minutes into the chase, the dark-yet-hot sensation of Alucard's chakra…energy…whatever you could call it in this world, a near-visible sensation to her senses. Having trained as a medical ninja provided many uses but the creation of substitutes, or substitution jutsu, was a basic one that the children in Konoha learned at the grade-school level before being allowed to become Genin. She was good at it, though definitely not as good as Naruto was. Her little trick was simpler. She'd discovered that the use of a wooden doll was useful for storing a certain amount of information within it to increase the believe-ability of her illusion, a sort of puppet-illusion. On top of the ability to decrease her presence to nearly nothing through meditation, she had become essentially invisible for a short period of time.

Now she was settled into a clearing about three kilometers away from the starting point, the large and flat rock in the center of it has become her seat. _'I'm still low on energy….why is it so dang hard to gather it here, is it just that I'm still weak from whatever technique brought me here…or something else? Nononono, focus on the fight.'_ Shaking her head quickly, Sakura felt it when her substitute puppet ran out of energy and dissipated. A faint vibration went through her as the last image of glowing red eyes and a wicked grin came back to her, and her own lips twisted slightly. _'Time to play._ '

Getting up and swinging her arms over her head, the ninja woman felt the faint tugs of the wires strung up above her head. A present from the butler fellow who was much, much more than he seemed. They were high-quality silver-and-steel razor-sharp strings, blessed of course. She had coated them in a deep grey chalk and ashes mixture that allowed them to blend into the shadows, and like a spider in a web, she waited to catch Alucard unawares.

The first tip-off was a small bat that flew into one of the wires and…well, ignited.

The little creature burst into flames and dropped to the ground with a little squeal just on the edge of the clearing. Emerald eyes watched, half-hooded, as it burned for a second or two before vanishing. A tiny burn spot was left over, a blacker shadow among dark shadows. Her response was to tug one of the wires passing by on her left, and the entire web shuffled slightly, each strand moving two or three centimeters up or down. Only eight strings remained stationary, acting as axis points, or the spokes of a wheel. It wasn't more than two minutes before a swarm of the little rodents began to swarm, coming from all areas of the forest in a mass.

As small squeaks and flares of fire lit the clearing one after the other as the 'bats' tested the trap for openings, Sakura let her face settle into a neutral expression before her hands began to flex. The web moved with her hands, the axis was the half-gloves on her hands, four fingers on each hand, leaving her thumbs free to balance or 'tune' the strings as needed. She was by no means an expert in this form of entrapment, not anything close to what Walter could do when he was being his bad-ass self, but she was proficient enough to have a ring and small piles of burnt bat flesh lying around the clearing by the time Alucard decided to materialize properly in a gap in her webbing around ten feet from her stone platform.

"Good work, teasing like that." His tone showing interest – almost approval – the vampire smirked just the slightest bit as he became slowly more corporeal in the moonlight. She couldn't see his expression well since the brim of his hat and the resulting shadow hid his eyes, but her own was perfectly visible to him.

"Well, I need to know what you can do before you get close to me again, right? We've already danced once, but it was such a short one." Cocking her hip and twiddling her fingers in a sassy wave, she smiled brightly as several strings floated out from their formation and settled on the ground, dropping in haphazard loops and strings around the clearing, some suspended from the axis lines and some suspended from the trees like a mockery of a weaving room.

"To be fair, we had a rather rude intruder on our party, a pity that we have a time limit tonight." Came the response from the taller man, whose entire body screamed a lazy sort of eagerness for the fight.

Stepping over one of the threads, Sakura began to pull off the gloves, her little string-toy no longer viable now for her. She loved the little weapon, and it would be a fun thing to get better at like Walter was, but she didn't have the time tonight and made a mental note to let him know where it was when this...exercise was over with. She sensed the flair of energy from the vampire a split second before a sharp crack of sound hit her ears. He'd fired one of his guns, not bothering to slow himself to a more taunting-slash-human level. A twitch of her cheek and the bullet passed her by, not meant to hit her directly. "Shall we dance then?"

Leaving her hands bare, and palming a set of her knives, now blessed by the mansion's priest, Sakura grinned and set one flying at him. She didn't bother to stand still however as it sliced a neat little nick into his hat.

 _'Impressive speed._ _'_ His thoughts were approving, eyes narrowing as the pretty young woman seemed to vanish for a split second, reappearing a few scant inches from him. Her eyes were glittering and color in her cheeks showed she was having fun, yet for some odd reason, aside from seeing her visibly, she was nearly invisible to his other senses. The cool feeling of blessed steel slicing into his neck was a marked contrast to the sting of pain and warmblood that began to spurt, his attention taken with his inability to properly sense her presence like he could with every other living creature he'd known of before.

The blood didn't spurt for long, and he reabsorbed it within a few seconds, but it was enough to get a gauge of his healing abilities. _'Looks like I need a bigger knife. Or to…let's see what else I can-'_ Sakura was very much intrigued about this, his healing up was fluid, much more than her healing energy could do even with her training. Sakura had never seen anything like how he had healed before. Her knife was nicely sharp, and she managed to get a second cut in - his bicep this time - before he turned and brought up his gun, aiming and firing before she could get the right distance.

The burn was instant as the bullet ripped through her own bicep at high velocity from a close distance. The burn of gun powder specking around the hole combined to draw a hissed intake of breath from the kunoichi, who started to make distance quickly, fleeing for the trees again. She was great at close-up combat, but a way to get his guns away from him was a priority right now, and her next trap would work...she hoped. Her chakra acted as a makeshift bandage within a few seconds after a judicious distance of perhaps 50 meters had been attained and Sakura began to make a leap for a tree…

Only to hit something hard. A startled "Oomph" escaped as she fell back a few paces with a stinging nose to see Alucard had intercepted, his legs still partially obscured in shadows while his body from the hips up had become solid. She'd smacked into his chest. Grinning like a lunatic, the vampire sniffed the air, liking the scent of her blood. It had changed since her arrival when he'd first had a smell of it, and now it smelled more like vanilla and spices, her adrenaline adding to the spiciness that was her underlying floral scent.

A low chuckle escaped his grinning mouth as she glared at him, crouching low to the ground with her free, uninjured arm came up. The knife was held sideways in a way he recognized as being almost military in tactic. A faint burning smell assailed his nose after a moment, followed by a flicker of her eyes and the vampire looked down to see one of the silvery threads had wrapped around his now-solid ankle.

The smell became obvious to them both at around the same time, and the grin that split Sakura's mouth was a victorious one as her foot shifted on the ground. That movement trapped one end of the silver thread under her foot, ripping into his flesh through his pants. The coil of sharp silver-wrapped once around his foot sliced through his Achilles tendon and embedded itself into his fibula where it promptly began to burn through the vampire's bone. The pain was intense, and Alucard frowned, then grunted as the thrown kunai Sakura followed up with embedded itself into his chest between his second and third ribs. On the opposite side of where his heart was.

' _Let's see how he heals from this.'_ Satisfied at her attack the ninja girl gave him a fleeting smile before heading into the forest.

"Your turn Alucard."

The frown was lost quickly as Alucard used his gloved hand to rip the thread off himself, the 'Schlick' sound of it ripping out of his flesh audible over the sound of the ninja woman disappearing into the forest was disgusting. The relief of the silver leaving his flesh was good though, and he was much more aware of her trickery now. _'It's as though she's playing Chess or some form of strategy game…I'm beginning to like her more and more…'_ His thoughts weren't tender as he mulled over her actions so far, and he was very amused at her hit-and-run works, traps that she'd laid (obviously with Walter involved, he was going to suffer more damage if he didn't out-think her) and her overall general actions. He was about ready to stop his gentleman's play, however; it was getting on to later in the night, and he wanted to subdue her now.

"Silly girl…you haven't played with a monster before, it's time to give you some nightmares to think over."

* * *

Phew, first action chapter is up, and this takes about half of the night (even if I messed it up somehow...maybe?) with basically Alucard just chasing Sakura around while she gets an idea as to some of his healing ability and he finds out just how smart she can be.

I'm not so great at these actions scenes yet, but thinking it over I might make 2-3 chapters of their little fight with more details included, and I'm sorry it's still taking a while between chapters, my life isssss chaos right now (moving, medical issues, schooling research, planning life, the damned COVID-19 crap happening, etc.) so THANK YOU SO MUCH for following my story and Please leave a review of it if you'd like to just give encouragement or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism! Regular ol' Criticisms will be ignored.


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